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Eng4 for Hollisters History of ConnecUci 



THE 



HISTORY 



CONNECTICUT, 



FROM THE 



PIEST SETTLEilEXT OF THE COLOXY TO THE ADOPTION OF THE 
PRESEXT COXSIIIL'TIGX. 



BY G. H. HOLLISTER. 



3n QltDO llolnmcs; 



VOL. I, 



"I wish [this task] had fallen into some better hands, that miofht have performed it to the life. I 
shall only draw the curtain and open my little casement, that so others of larger hearts and 
abilities may let in a bigger light ; that so at least some small glimmering may be lett to posterity 
what difficulties and obstructions their forefathers met with in first settling these desert parts of 
America." — Mason's History of the Pequot IVar. 



NEW HAVEN: 

DURRIE AND PECK, 

1855. 




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S55, 

BY G. H. HOLLISTER, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut. 



V ^V 



V\^ 



R. H. HOBBS, CASE, TIFFANY & CO., 

Btereotyper, Hartford, Ct Printers, Hartford, Conn. 



TO THE HON. I. WILLIAM STUART. 

MY LEAR SIR: 

It gives me the highest pleasure to dedicate this work to you. 

I KNOW no gentleman IN THE StATE WHOSE LOVE FOR ITS HiSTORY IS SO 
MUCH LIKE A POEt'S PASSION FOR HIS MuSE, AS YOUR OWN. ThE SoNS OF 

Connecticut will agree with me in thanking you for your filial care 

OF THE DEAR OLD CHARTER OaK. XoR WILL THAT GENIUS OF WyLLYS HiLL 
forget TO REWARD THE TENDER OFFICES THAT NURSED ITS SECOND CHILDHOOD. 

Every russet leaf that lingers among its hoary locks to receive the 

CARESSES OF THE InDIAN SuMMER, WILL WHISPER YOUR NAME ; EVERY ACORN THAT 

drops from its aged hands to germinate and perpetuate its line, will keep 
your memory alive in the hearts of its children. 

Accept this slight token of my grateful regard, 
And believe me ever 

Your Friend, 

G. H. HOLLISTER. 



PREFACE. 



It is not without much reluctance that I submit this work to the examination 
of the public. The difficulties that beset the path of the author of a local history, 
are not likely to be appreciated by the majority of readers whose avocations are 
for the most part connected with the stirring scenes of the present day and with 
the bustle of active life. The historian of the United States is at liberty to choose 
those facts that, from their large proportions and prominence, can be seen as the 
Green Mountains, the Alleghanies or the White Hills may be, beyond the 
boundaries of states or other arbitrary lines that designate their locality upon the 
map. He may speak of Washington, of Laurens, of Putnam, or of Warren, and 
feel that the northern and southern reader alike is quickened with the theme. So 
free is he to choose from the materials before him, that common events may be 
passed by, common incidents may be left out of view, without awakening personal 
animosity or enkindling local jealousies. 

The task that I have xmdertaken is widely different. The following pages are 
not a record of the doings of a mighty nation, stretching over a continent ; but 
rather of a people humble in their beginnings, unambitious in their aims ; content 
with the moral grandeur that alone attends the discharge of their duty, and in 
silent unconsciousness building up a political structure more sublime in its beauty 
than the towered palaces of kings. 

I have often been mquired of if I could find material for a history of so small 
a state ? My answer is, that I have found quite too much, and I have been more 
at a loss what I should be justified in leaving out, than how I should find interest- 
ing matter to insert. 

I am much indebted to Dr. Trumbull, for going before me and gathering as he 
did whatever the most untiring diligence could glean from records, family papers, 
oral communications, and even traditions. But Trumbull did not touch upon 
the American revolution — that part of our history by far the most interesting to 
the people. From the close of the last French war, down to the adoption of our 
State Constitution, I have been obliged to shape my course without any general 
guide, but not without many local one.s, who have pointed out the way to me for a 
little distance and then smilingly committed me to the care of others. 

My main object in undertaking this work was to turn the attention of the 
descendants of the Connecticut emigrants from the present to the glorious past ; to 
remind them of the sacrifices, the toils, the sufferings of their fathers' fathers ; and 
to awaken, though it be with a momentary breath, the coals that once glowed 
like the vestal fire day and night upon the altar of Freedom. Those who read 
these pages, will find that they have little need to be ashamed of their origin, and 
that it can be said of them as truly and in a higher sense than the fiifth Henry 



VI PREFACE. 

could say to his troops on the eve of battle, that " their blood is fet from fathers 
of war-proof." Indeed, no state since the fall of Lacedaemon has ever, in the 
history of the world, waged so many wars in the same number of years, with 
equal success, or voluntarily borne such heavy burdens, as Connecticut. If I have 
failed to prove these facts, I am sure they are capable of proof when some author 
more worthy of the theme shall address his energies to the task. Meanwhile, I 
humbly commend my labors to my brothers who still remain upon the soil of the 
State, and to those who, in regions far remote, yet turn their eyes with a fond 
regard toward the green hills and soft valleys where he the bones of the men who 
felled the forest and planted the vines. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTE.R I. 

Page 

Settlement of the Connecticut River FaZZey.— Wah-qui-ma-cut visits 
the governors of Massachusetts and Plymouth ; he describes the 
Valley of the Connecticut ; he wishes the English to settle ,there ; 
Gov. Winslow visits the Valley; the Warwick patent ; Massa- 
chusetts planters straightened for room ; their removal to Con- 
necticut opposed ; Wethersfield settled ; leave granted Hooker 
to remove ; first settlement of Windsor ; march through the wilder- 
ness ; arrival of Winthrop ; severity of the winter ; sufferings of the 
settlers ; construction of the General Court; journey of Hooker to 
Hartford ; the valley of the Connecticut ; its primitive appearance ; 
its aboriginal inhabitants ; their Anglo Saxon successors 17 

CHAPTER II. 

Connecticut a Wilderness: TTie Pequot War and its causes. — Con- 
trast between the past and present ; number and characteristics of 
the Indians ; murder of Captains Stone and Norton ; Narragansetts 
and Pequots ; John Oldham killed ; Gallop captures Oldham's 
vessel ; Endicott sent to Block Island ; he lays it waste ; remon- 
strance of Gardiner; Endicott invades the Pequot country; But- 
terfield roasted alive ; Tilley tortured to death ; Gardiner wounded ; 
an English shallop captured ; interview between Gardiner and 
the Indians at Saybrook ; Indians attack Wethersfield ; declara- 
tion of war against the Pequots ; Mason sails for Pequot ; it is 
decided to sail to Narragansett ; their arrival, and interview with 
Miantinomoh ; conduct of the Nihanticks ; Mason reinforced by 
Narragansetts ; boastings of Uncas ; desertion and cowardice of 
the Nari'agansetts ; the English reach the Pequot fort ; Mason burns 
the fort ; terrible destruction of life ; sad condition of the English 
soldiers ; return to Hartford 32 

CHAPTER III. 

Prosecution of the Pequot War. — Sassacus disgraced in the view of 
his tribe ; the Pequots burn their remaining fort and disperse ; 
Massachusetts prosecutes the war ; Mason joins Stoughton at Pequot 
harbor; pursuit of Sassacus; sachems murdered at "Sachem's 
Head ;" the " swamp fight" at Fairfield ; bravery of Captain Mason ; 



Viil CONTENTS. 

Pagk 

and Patrick ; the English triumph ; the captives and booty divi- 
ded ; sufferings of the captives ; Sassacus killed by the Mohawks ; 
his scalp sent to Boston ; the remnant of the Pequots distributed 
among the captors ; the war unnecessary ; Endicott's expedition 
ill-advised ; Connecticut compelled to take the field in self-defense ; 
it became a war of extermination; the Pequot tribe extinct. ... 66 



A 



CHAPTER IV. 

The first American Constitution. — Civil and religious liberty had 
their rise in England ; their progress ; Henry VIII. ; his character 
and career ; his destruction and confiscation of Monastic buildings 
and estates ; his religious affinities ; progress of the Reformation ; 
death of Henry VHI. ; the "reformation party;" the English 
liturgy framed ; accession of Elizabeth ; the liberal party divided ; 
character of the queen ; strict conformity required ; the 
High Court of Commission established ; its despotic nature; 
clergymen executed for non-conformity ; James I. ; union of Eng- 
land and Scotland ; many clergymen silenced, imprisoned, or exiled ; 
conduct of the king; both parties intolerant; the puritans 
compelled to take repugnant oaths, or to leave the country ; 
their motives in coming to the new world ; origin of human 
government; the founders of our government; their character- 
istics; the Constitution of Connecticut ; its objects and provisions ; 
two annual assemblies or General Courts; mode of . nominating 
candidates for office ; requisite qualifications for office ; the several 
towns to send four deputies ; convening of regular and special 
courts ; deputies chosen by ballot ; the supreme power of the 
commonwealth vested in the General Court ; our Constitution com- 
pared with those of Europe ; it recognizes all power as vested with 
the people ; no taxation without representation ; the king not 
named in it ; our early laws ; Bancroft's tribute to Connecticut. . 74 

CHAPTER V. 

Founding of New Haven Colony. — People threatened with famine ; 
corn purchased of the Indians ; colony in debt ; heavy taxes ; 
John Mason appointed commander-in-chief of the militia ; Hooker 
presents him with the staif of office ; the scene described by Dr. 
Bushnell ; Davenport, Eaton and Hopkins arrive in Massachusetts ; 
efforts made to retain them in that colony ; they settle in New 
Haven ; their first Sabbath there ; Davenport's discourse ; plantation 
covenant ; earthquake ; purchase of the land at Quinnipiack ; char- 
acter of the planters ; meeting in " Mr. Newman's barn ;" constitu- 
tion adopted ; the " seven pillars" of the church ; the charge of 



CONTENTS. LX 

Paox 

bigotry considered ; purchase and settlement of Guilford and Mil- 
ford ; principal settlers of Milford and Guilford ; Whitfield, Des- 
borough, and Leete ; Ludlow ; settlement of Fairfield and Stratford. 91 

CHAPTER VI. 

Colonel Fenwich establishes a government at Sayhroolc-^ArTivsl of 
Colonel Fenwick, Lady Fenwick, and others, at Saybrook ; a civil 
government organized ; the first proprietors and other settlers ; 
quarrel between Sowheag and the people of Wethersfield ; attempts 
at reconciliation ; the remnant of the Pequots take possession of 
Pawcatuck ; a war against them resolved on ; Mason and Uncas 
invade their territory, burn their wigwams, carry off their corn, 
wampum, and other valuables ; attempt to form a " general con- 
federation" of the colonies ; the several towns incorporated ; all 
deeds, mortgages, and conveyances of lands to be recorded ; the 
oflBce of town clerk established ; provisions made for settling 
estates of deceased persons ; difiiculties arising fi-om Indian titles ; 
purchase of Norwalk and Greenwich ; purchase of lands on Long 
Island ; purchase of Stamford ; Captain Turner sent to Delaware 
Bay to buy lands ; character of the Wethersfield people ; Mr. Ware- 
ham and other proprietors of Windsor ; attempts to quiet the dis- 
turbances at Wethersfield ; many remove to Stamford ; principal 
proprietors who remained ; a union of the New England colonies 
effected ; New England Congress ; how constituted ; its powers ; 
Miantinomoh and Uncas ; the former invades the territory of the 
latter ; stratagem of Uncas ; the Narragansetts put to flight ; 
Miantinomoh captured ; his death, and burial-place 106 

CHAPTER VII. 

Progress of Settlement. Troiibles with tJie Dutch and Indians. — 
Claims of the English and Dutch ; discoveries of Adrian Block ; 
the Dutch visit and purchase lands in Connecticut ; war between 
the Dutch and Indians ; how it originated ; the Indians murder 
Mrs. Hutchinson and her family ; the Dutch are aided by Captain 
Underbill; Indian depredations and murders upon the English; 
settlement of Branford ; commissioners of the united colonies meet 
at Hartford ; agreement with the Narragansetts and certain Long 
Island Indians ; the jurisdiction of Westfield, and South Hamp- 
ton ; purchase of Saybrook fort, &c. of Col. Fenwick ; a duty to 
be paid Col. Fenwick ; Death of George Wyllys, Esq. ; sketch of 
his history ; the Charter Oak Place ; the Narragansetts commence 
hostilities against Uncas ; interference of the English ; declaration 
of war against the Narragansetts ; the Narragansetts ask permis- 



X CONTENTS. 

Fasc 

sion of the commissioners to fight Uncas, and are refused ; new 
treaty with them ; settlement of Farmington ; controversy with 
Keift, the Dutch governor ; complaints of the commissioners 
against him ; his reply, and the response of the commissioners ; the 
Indians attempt the murder of Gov. Hopkins and others; the 
Mohawks ; first commercial attempt at New Haven ; ship, cargo, 
and passengers lost ; "the phantom ship ;" summons to Ninigret 
and Pessacus ; Springfield; Winthrop's claim ; death of Lady Fen- 
wick ; her history ; her tomb : 126 

CHAPTER YIII. 

Founding of New London. — Settlement commenced by John Win- 
throp, Jr., and Thomas Peters ; disputed territory ; Peters returns 
to England ; Winthrop's commission ; settlers exempt from taxa- 
tion ; threatened Indian war ; Indian depredations ; the impost for 
repairing Saybrook fort ; the controversy decided in favor of Con- 
necticut ; controversy with Gov. Stuyvesant of New Netherlands ; 
burning of the Saybrook fort ; attempt to assassinate Uncas ; Uncas' 
story concerning a union between the Narragansetts, Nihanticks, 
and Pequots ; complaints of the Pequot captives ; Capt. Atherton 
sent into the Narragansett country ; his interview with Pessacus ; 
Ninigret ; Gov. Stuyvesant visits Hartford ; his claims ; negotia- 
tions with him ; Norwalk ; Middletown ; attempt to sail for Dela- 
ware Bay ; Stuyvesant interferes ; French agents visit New Haven ; 
rumored conspiracy between the Dutch and Indians to extermin- 
ate the EngHsh ; the commissioners in favor of a declaration of war; 
Massachusetts opposes the declaration 161 

CHAPTER IX. 

Departure of Ludlow. Death of Haynes, Wolcott, and Eaton. — Fair- 
field and Stamford alarmed by the Dutch ; Fairfield determines 
upon war; Ludlow appointed commander-in-chief; sketch of Eoger 
Ludlow ; death and history of Gov. Haynes ; arrest and trial of 
Manning ; arrival of Sedgwick and Leverett in Boston ; the war 
with the Dutch to be carried on ; war against Ninigret ; Willard 
appointed commander-in-chief by Massachusetts ; his expedition a 
failure ; the commissioners disappointed ; the refugee Pequots ; 
Ninigret's movements watched ; death and history of Henry "Wol- 
cott, Esq. ; Cromwell desires the New Haven people to settle in 
Jamaica ; Greenwich ; restlessness of Uncas ; death of Gov. Eaton ; 
sketch of his life and character ; Gov. Hopkins' decease ; his pub- 
lic services, and benevolence ; Chesebrough settles at Stonington ; 
the Mistick river made the boundary between Connecticut and 



CONTENTS. XI 

Fags 

Massachusetts ; death of Gov. Welles and removal of Gov. "Web- 
ster ; Pessacus surrounds Uncas in his fort ; Pessacus defeated ; 
settlement and settlers of Norwich 177 

CHAPTER X. 

Tlie Charter. — Great events in England ; accession of Charles II. ; 
Connecticut makes a formal avowal of allegiance; petition for the 
charter; Gov. Winthrop appointed agent to present it to the king; 
he arrives in England ; obtains the cooperation of the Lord Say 
and Seal, and the Earl of Manchester ; presentation of a ring to the 
king ; the prayer of the petitioners granted ; the charter receives 
the royal signature ; the patentees ; main features of the charter ; 
its reception in the colony; several border towns, and towns on 
Long Island, petition to be, and are, received under its jurisdiction ; 
remonstrances of New Haven ; Davenport a principal opponent of 
the union ; proceedings of the legislatures of Connecticut and New 
Haven ; Connecticut lays claim to Westchester, and Wickford ; 
committees appointed to treat with the towns ; Gov. Winthrop's 
return; Gov. Stuyvesant protests; Thomas Pell's commission; 
Killingworth named ; New Haven still resists ; Connecticut attempts 
to collect taxes within the New Haven jurisdiction; resistance; 
"the New Haven case stated ;" Duke of York's Patent ; the colo- 
nies alarmed ; Col. Nichols arrives from England ; he, with others, 
is authorized "to determine all controversies;" interview between 
Gov. Winthrop and Col. Nichols ; New Amsterdam is surrendered 
to Nichols ; the power of the Dutch in America is annihilated ; 
New Haven reluctantly yields up her territorial government ; the 
two colonies are united under the charter ; the bounds of Connec- 
ticut defined ; the last General Court of New Haven colony. . . . 202 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Regicides. — Policy of Charles II. ; his endeavors to conciliate all 
parties; presbyterians admitted to his counsels and share the 
offices ; the house of lords except the regicides from the general 
pardon ; some of them fled, and some were taken and executed ; 
Whalley and GoflFe arrive in Boston ; treated with high considera- 
tion ; the king's proclamation against them reaches Boston ; the 
judges escape to New Haven; they are pursued by Kellond and 
Kirk ; the pursuers are detained at Guilford over the Sabbath ; 
they reach New Haven ; are baffled by the authorities ; they re- 
turn to Boston ; the judges are concealed in various places ; the 
search for them still kept up ; they propose to surrender them- 
selves ; they are concealed in Milford ; they proceed to Hadley ; 



Xll CONTENTS. 

Paoi 

are there concealed ; sketch of Whalley ; sketch of GofFe ; Col. 
Dixwell ; sketch of his life and services ; he is concealed in New 
Haven ; Sir Edmund Andross' visit at New Haven ; death of Dix- 
well 234 

CHAPTER XII. 

King PMlip^s War. — Conduct of the king's commissioners ; they 
annul purchases of the Indians ; attempt to form an independent 
government in Narragansett ; counties established; Lyme named; 
Haddam, Simsbury, and AVallingford incorporated ; controversy 
about Paugasset (Derby ;) the town incorporated ; dispute in the 
church at Stratford ; the parties separate ; settlement of Pamperaug 
(Woodbury ;) adventures of the emigrating party ; Philip, the 
sachem of the "Wampanoags ; his conspiracy ; attempts to chris- 
tianize the Indians ; the prospects of Philip ; apprehensions of the 
EngHsh ; the crisis approaches ; Swansey, Taunton, Middleborough, 
and Dartmouth destroj^ed by the Indians ; Philip attacked and 
pursued ; Captains Hutchinson and Beers, and several of their men 
killed; Major Treat; services of Connecticut; the Narragansetts 
and Wampanoags ; treaty with the Narragansett sachems ; rewards 
offered for Philip ; Capt. Lathrop slain ; Mosely attacked and 
driven back; Major Treat's timely arrival ; the enemy repulsed ; 
means for the general defense; Springfield destroyed; Major Treat 
drives the enemy from the place, and saves the people from promis- 
cuous slaughter; vote of thanks to Major Treat; Philip attacks 
Hadley ; he is driven back by the Connecticut troops ; defense of 
the eastern towns ; Congress decided to raise one thousand men ; 
the Narragansetts to be attacked in their principal fort ; union of 
the forces from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Plymouth ; attack 
upon the fort ; dreadful slaughter ; the enemy dispersed — six hun- 
dred wigwams burned ; three Connecticut captains killed ; a dearly 
bought victory ; the war continues ; Nanuntenoo captured ; he 
spurns a conditional offer of life ; he is executed ; Major Talcott's 
expedition ; " the long and hungry march ;" he is stationed at West- 
field ; he attacks a party of the enemy near the Housatonick ; the 
sachem of Quoboug and twenty-four of his warriors killed 253 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Andross attempts to land at Sayhroolc. — The Duke of York's new 
patent ; the duke commissions Andross as governor of New York ; 
Andross disregards previous boundaries; war with Philip still 
pending; Andross approaches Saybrook ; the militia rally ; legisla- 
tive instructions to Capt. Bull and Mr. Chapman ; they are to act 



CONTENTS. XUl 

Faab 

in self-defense ; the protest of the General Assembly ; Andross and 
his suite permitted to land; his object; his clerk is ordered to read 
aloud his commission, &c. ; Capt. Bull prevents him ; the militia 
escort Andross to his boat ; a statement to be made to the king ; 
death of Gov. Winthrop ; his public and private life ; the Winthrop 
letters 288 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Administration of Andross. — The colony involved in debt; heavy 
taxes levied ; she takes possession of the country of Nanuntenoo; 
the Andross afiair; committee on claims and jurisdiction appoint- 
ed ; their decision in favor of Connecticut ; a new enemy appears ; 
the marquis of Hamilton's claim ; complaints against the colonies; 
Waterbury settled and incorporated ; the Naugatuck valley ; James 
II. ; Writs of quo warranto ; Mr. "Whiting appointed agent to Eng- 
land ; conduct of the king; charters annulled ; Connecticut alarm- 
ed ; the General Assembly refuse to direct ; Mr. AYhiting's efforts 
unavailing ; Andross arrives in Boston as governor of New England ; 
he informs Connecticut of his appointment ; is " commissioned to 
receive their charter;" appeals to their loyalty ; they petition the 
king, without avail ; Andross visits Hartford ; his reception by the 
General Assembly ; he publicly demands the charter; remonstrance 
of Gov. Treat ; debate prolonged until evening ; the charter sud- 
denly disappears ; Andross assumes the government ; he proceeds 
to appoint officers ; many odious measures adopted and enforced 
by him ; he declares the land titles of the colonists valueless ; or- 
ders that new titles or patents shall be purchased ; abdication of 
James II. ; Andross seized and confined in Boston ; the charter 
oflBcers resume the government ; the advent of king William wel- 
comed by the colonists ; the charter oak ; Indian legend ; the 
charter concealed by Capt. Wadsworth 300 

CHAPTER XV. 

Frontenac's Invasion. Attem2)t upon Quebec. — The French and In- 
dians threaten northern New York ; Leisler asks the aid of Con- 
necticut ; assistance rendered ; Count Frontenac invades the fron- 
tier settlements ; Schenectady destroyed ; horrible massacres ; set- 
tlement at Salmon Falls broken up ; Massachusetts asks the assist- 
ance of Connecticut ; she responds to the call ; Glastenbury incor- 
porated ; New England and New York determine to invade the 
enemy's country ; plan of operations ; Fitz John Winthrop appoint- 
ed commander-in-chief; he arrives at Wood Creek; the "five na- 
tions" refuse to cooperate with him ; no canoes in readiness ; he 



XIV CONTENTS. 

Fags 

retreats to Albany ; Sir William Phipps' fleet reach Quebec ; he at- 
tacks the city, but soon re-embarks ; conduct of Leisler and Mil- 
born ; Leisler seizes and court-martials Winthrop ; he is rescued 
by the Mohawks ; letter from the authorities of Connecticut ; the 
General Assembly sustain Winthrop ; vote of thanks ; Windham 
incorporated ; Frontenac invades the Mohawk country ; Col. Schuy- 
ler pursues the French ; Connecticut sends more men to Albany ; 
Gov. Phipps asks for more men ; Capt. Whiting sent to his aid ; 
Gov. Fletcher of New York ; he claims the command of the militia 
of Connecticut ; Gen. Winthrop sent as agent to England ; his in- 
structions ; Fletcher visits Hartford ; attempts to enforce his 
authority over the militia ; scene between him and Capt. Wads- 
worth 325 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Conspiracy of Dudley and Corribury. — Money raised for the defense 
of Albany ; it is paid to Gov. Fletcher ; result of Winthrop's mis- 
sion to England ; satisfactory to Connecticut ; services of the 
colony; enormous taxation ; dishonorable conduct of Fletcher ; the 
Earl of Bellamont ; committee appointed to wait upon him ; Win- 
throp elected governor ; two houses of the legislature established ; 
Plainfield, Colchester, and Durham incorporated ; New York and 
Connecticut boundary line ; " Oblong ;" Voluntown, Mansfield, 
Danbury, and Canterbury, incorporated ; war against Fiance and 
Spain ; the colonies involved in the conflict ; Connecticut sends 
troops to aid Massachusetts and New York ; fi-iendly Indians to be 
enlisted ; Dudley and Cornbury ; their hatred to Connecticut ; 
Dudley's charges against her ; his attempt to reunite all the char- 
ter governments to the crown ; interference of Sir Henry Ashurst; 
Dudley fails in his project; further attempts to rob Connecticut of 
her charter; new charges preferred against her; Bulkley's "Will 
and Doom ;" the colony charged with oppressing the Mohegans ; 
the queen appoints commissioners to investigate the charge ; 
survey and map of the Mohegan country ; meeting of the commis- 
sioners ; Connecticut not officially notified ; an ex parte trial ; ver- 
dict against Connecticut ; the trial of the colony for her charter ; 
noble defense by Sir Henry Ashurst ; the decision favorable to 
Connecticut ; her enemies frustrated 343 

CHAPTER XYII. 

Death of Treat. Surrender of Port Royal. — Colonies again alarm- 
ed ; rumors of a French and Indian invasion ; removal of Indians ; 
Dudley's proposed expedition against Canada ; death of Gov. Win- 



CONTENTS. ^V 



Paoe 



throp ; Gurdon Saltonstall chosen governor ; sketch of the Ufe and 
services of Gov. Treat; Connecticut raises troops for Canada; 
Nicholson commands the land army ; non-arrival of the fleet from 
England ; failure of the expedition ; Bills of Credit issued ; Congress 
of governors ; address to the queen ; Gov. Saltonstall appointed 
agent to England ; Ridgefield incorporated ; sachems visit England 
with Col. Schuyler ; their interview with the queen ; more troops 
raised ; provincial fleet reaches Port Royal ; the fort surrenders ; 
fleet arrives from England ; it is destitute of supplies ; men and 
provisions speedily raised ; expedition against Canada ; wreck of 
the English fleet ; land army return ; Hebron, Killingly, Coventry, 
New Milford, and Pomfret incorporated 367 

CHAPTER XYIII. 

War with the Eastern Indians.— French. Jesuits ; their influence with 
the Indians; Father Ralle; incursions of the French and Indians; 
eastern Massachusetts alarmed ; Col. "Walton sent to defend the 
eastern fi-ontier ; complaints of the Indians against the English ; 
expedition against Norridgewock ; the enemy had fled ; the Eng- 
lish carry off the books and papers of Father Ralle ; the Indians 
retaliate ; they burn Brunswick, and capture sixteen English fish- 
ing vessels ; war formally declared ; Governors Shute and Burnett 
call upon Connecticut for troops ; she determines to defend her 
own frontiers and the county of Hampshire ; expeditions of West- 
brook, Moulton, and Lovell ; Ashford, Tolland, Stafford, Bolton, 
and Litchfield, incorporated 382 

HAPTER XIX. 

War with France. Capture of Louislourg. — Prospect of a war be- 
tween England and Spain ; the colony takes measures to defend 
herself; the war declared ; Admiral Vernon sent against the Span- 
ish "West Indies ; measures for raising troops in Connecticut ; BiUs 
of Credit issued ; union of Lord Cathcart's fleet with that of Ver- 
non ; unsuccessful attack upon Carthagena ; pestilence ; fearful 
mortality among the troops ; Gov. Oglethorpe ; England declares 
war against France ; French privateers ; the commerce of New 
England destroyed by them ; the English determine to capture 
Louisbourg ; measures adopted to that end ; arguments for and 
against the project ; the enterprise temporarily abandoned ; the 
determination is renewed ; troops raised and officers appointed in 
Connecticut; Sir "William Pepperell appointed commander-in-chief; 
the troops sail for Louisbourg ; they are joined by Commodore 
Warren's fleet ; a part of the troops eflfect a landing ; they take 



XVI CONTENTS. 

PAoa 

surrender of Louisbourg ; services of Connecticut ; England 
resolves to pursue her conquests ; French fleet sails for America ; 
sudden death of D'Anville and D'Estournelle ; Jonquiere's plans 
defeated 390 

CHAPTER XX. 

Ea/rly Manners and Customs in Connecticut. — Preliminary remarks ; 
the undistinguished men and women of the colony ; the early plan- 
ters were of good descent ; their heraldric bearings ; their disre- 
gard for the past ; servaatej; the pedigree of the first settlers ; their 
industry and privations; the dignity of labor; civil, military, and 
ecclesiastical titles ; classes or grades of society ; architecture ; 
superstitions of the people ; their meals ; furniture ; modes of 
conveyance; the charge of bigotry considered; Fast and Thanks- 
giving ; customs at funerals ; peculiarities of dress and ornament. 415 

CHAPTER XXI. 

The establisTied Religion of Connecticut. — Religious opinions of 
the settlers ; their motives in coming to New England ; the 
first churches and ministers of Connecticut ; the specific 
duties of pastors, teachers, ruling elders, and deacons ; quali- 
fications for church-membership ; the half-way covenant ; con- 
struction and views of the churches ; religious controversies ; 
Rev. Henry Smith and the people of Wethersfield ; death and 
character of the Rev. Thomas Hooker ; Rev. James Pier- 
pont ; the Hartford controversy ; dissensions at Wethersfield ; 
the Russell and HoUister controversy ; Mr. Russell removes 
to Hadley ; assembly of ministers ; difficulties at "Windsor ; 
the Saybrook platform ; the Ruggles controversy at Guilford ; 
the "Great Revival;" opposition to the measures of the re- 
vivalists ; errors and irregularities ; laws passed to suppress 
the "new lights ;" difficulties at Branford, Milford, New Haven, 
and Wallingford ; religious toleration ; practical operation of 
the new system ; concluding remarks 446 



APPENDIX. 



The Patent of 1631 : 475 

The Charter of 1662 476 

Letter from Charles H 484 

New Haven Case Stated 484 



HISTORY 



CONNECTICUT 



CHAPTER I. 

SETTLEMENT OF THE CONNECTICUT EIVER VALLEY. 

Some time during the year 1631, an Indian Sachem visited 
the governors of the Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies in 
the guise of a suppliant. He said his name was Wah-qui- 
ma-cut. He described the country occupied by his own and 
kindred tribes as a rich, beautiful valley, aboundingiQ ;Corn 
and game, and divided by a river calle'd~^^''Cbnnectictit," 
which he represented as surpassing all other streams, as well 
in its size and in the purity of its waters, as in the excellence 
and variety of the fish that swam in it, and the number of the 
otter and beaver that might be found along its banks. He 
begged that each of the colonies would send Englishmen to 
make settlements in this valley. He even offered to give the 
new emigrants eighty beaver skins annually, and supply them 
with corn, as an inducement to make the trial ; and proposed 
that two men should first be delegated to view the country, 
and make report to the governors, before any steps should 
be taken towards a removal there. 

The governor of the Massachusetts received him courte- 
ously, but declined to entertain his proposition. Governor 
Winslow, of Plymouth, without directly acceding to it, was 
unable wholly to dismiss it from his mind; and not long after 
went himself to spy out the riches of this Indian Paradise.* 
He found it in primitive loveliness. All that his eye rested 
on was wild and coy, as if no foot save that of the savage 



Morton's Memorial, 395 ; Brodhead, i. 210, 233 ; *^umbull, i. 30. 
2 



18 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

had trodden there since the dawn of creation. So Winslow 
doubtless thought, for he named himself the "discoverer" of 
the River and the Valley. 

Governor Winslow must have made a very favorable 
report of the country, for we find during the following year 
other explorers, from Plymouth, searching the Connecticut 
river up and down ; and, as early as October, 1633, they had, 
under the sanction of the colony, established a trading house 
near the mouth of the Tunxis river in Windsor, and were 
already carrying on a successful traffic in furs with the 
Indians, in defiance of the Dutch, from Manhattan, who just 
before had erected a house called " Good Hope," at Hart- 
ford,* but six miles below, and who vowed vengeance against 
the English traders, who had encroached upon the rights of 
the "original discoverers of The Fresh River." William 
Holmes was the man who had been selected by the Governor 
of Plymouth to build the trading house at Windsor. With 
the frame of this house fitted, and all the materials requisite 
for completing it. Holmes, with his commission in his pocket, 
set sail for the mouth of the Connecticut. He passed up the 
river without meeting with any resistance, until he arrived 
at the Dutch fort at Hartford. This fortification was not 
very formidable, having only two small pieces of ordnance ; 
but, such as it was, its little garrison bristled with opposition 
at sight of the ill-omened sail, stood gallantly by their guns, 
and commanded Holmes "to strike his colors, or they would 
fire upon him."f But Holmes was not a man to be intimi- 

* Brodhead, (in his " History of the State of New York," vol. i. p. 238,) 
states that this Dutch trading house was projected in 1623, but was not built 
tmtil 1633, when the new director general, Van Twiller, " dispatched John Van 
Curler, one of his commissaries, with six others, to finish the long-projected fort 
on the Connecticut river, and to obtain a formal Indian deed for the tracts of land 
formerly selected." Through the negotiations of Van Curler, the Dutch claimed 
to have purchased a tract of land of the Pequots, as conquerors, " with the good- 
will and assent of Sequeen." A few 3'ears afterwards, however, (July 2, 1640,) 
Sequasson, son of Sequeen, testified before the court at Hartford, " that he never 
sold any ground to the Dutch, neither was at any time conquered by the Pequots, 
nor paid any tribute to them.'' 

+ Bradford, in Hutchinson, vol. ii. p. 435 ; Brodhead, vol. ii. p. 241. 



[1634.] holmes' expedition. 19 

dated by words. He had, he said, a commission from the 
governor to go up the river, and he should go. A fierce rep- 
Kcation from the Dutch followed; but, whether their guns had 
no powder and ball in them, or whether they thought it best 
to save their ammunition against a time of greater need, they 
suffered the English to sail by, and erect their trading house, 
and surround it with palisades, before they made any further 
attempt to restrain them. But Holmes soon found difficul- 
ties besinnino; to thicken around him. The sachems of the 
river tribes had been driven away from their territories by 
the Pequots, and Holmes, after bringing them back in his 
vessel, had purchased of them such land as he found requisite 
for carrying out his enterprise. Enraged that their old mas- 
ters were restored by the English to their former dominion, 
the petty chiefs along the river incited the Indians to acts of 
violence against the traders. 

Meanwhile, the news of Holmes' expedition reached the 
ears of the Dutch governor, Wouter Van Twiller, at Fort 
Amsterdam. Astonished at the presumption of the intruders, 
his excellency immediately sent a detachment of troops to 
the infested district, with instructions to drive the English 
traders from the river. It is probable that this company was 
joined by allies from " Good Hope," for when it presented 
itself without the palisades at the mouth of the Tunxis, its 
ranks numbered full seventy armed men, under spread ban- 
ners, inflamed with a noble ardor, that boded no good to 
Holmes and his men. But all this martial array, so near his 
gates, though attended with the promise of utter annihilation 
unless he acceded to their terms, like the threats at " Good 
Hope," produced an effect the very reverse of what had been 
intended. The fur trader and his men stood on the defen- 
sive. It was obvious there must be bloodshed before the 
colors of the States General could be displayed inside of the 
palisades — an awkward situation for an invading army, from 
which it was prudently extricated by a parley, and a well- 
timed retreat.* 

* De Vries' Voyages, p. 150; Winthrop, vol. i. pp. 123, 148, 153, 386; 
Brodhead, Vol. i. p. 242. 



20 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Thus ended the exploits of Wouter Van Twiller and the 
garrison at " Good Hope," against the Plymouth traders, leav- 
ing the latter in the bloodless and peaceful possession of the soil, 
to contend, as best they might, with the rigors of impending 
winter, and to abide their time for the coming on of the calam- 
ities that awaited them, of which I am to speak in their order. 

Sometime before Winslow discovered the Connecticut river 
and the lands adjacent, the country — possibly from the repre- 
sentations of Indian runners, who had enlarged upon its 
beauties at Boston and Plymouth, or perhaps from that love 
of the marvelous that causes men to desire most earnestly 
whatever is unexplored and untried — had been sought after 
with no ordinary solicitude by men of no vulgar rank. In 
the course of the year 1630, the famous Plymouth Company, 
the mother corporation that gave life to all the New England 
grants, conveyed the whole territory of what was subse- 
quently called the colony of Connecticut, and much more, 
to Robert Earl of Warwick ; and the better opinion is, that 
this grant was, during the same year, confirmed to him by a 
patent from Charles I. But as no trace can be found of any 
such patent, it has been doubted if it ever had an existence.*' 
On the 19th of March of the next year, Robert of Warwick 
executed under his hand and seal the grant since known as 
the old patent of Connecticut, wherein he conveyed the same 
territory to Viscount Say and Seal, Robert Lord Brooke, 
John Hampden, Pym, Sir Richard Saltonstall, and others, 
whose names still shed a mild light over the clouds of revo- 
lution that darkened the sunset of the most graceful, yet err- 
ing, of all the monarchs that have ever sat upon the throne 
of England. Men they were, who may well be said to have 
been as free from the incendiary spirit that sought to unsettle 
the old order of the British constitution, as their souls were 
abhorrent of the oppressive acts of the Court of High Com- 
mission. One of them, the muse of Gray has named as the 

* As the validity of the patent granted by the Earl of "Warwick to Lord Say 
and Seal and his associates, seems never to have been called in question, it is rea- 
sonable to infer that he was vested with full power to grant such a patent. 



,jg34.] APPLICATION DENIED. 21 

poet's ideal of the patriot; and another, even Milton, who 
condescended to flatter no one, could not forbear to write 
"with honor may I name him, the Lord Brooke. Such 
were the original grantees of the soil now known-may it 
ever be '-as Connecticut. Such were the illustrious men, 
who looked to the seclusion of her shades for a retreat for 
themselves and their friends from the grasp of a too stringent 
political and ecclesiastical domination. But, before the new 
proprietors could find time to take possession of their pur- 
chase, it was pre-occupied, as we have seen, by the Dutch 
and the fur traders from New Plymouth. 

By this time, such numbers had come over from t.ng- 
land and planted themselves in the vicinity of Boston, 
that' the people at Watertown, Dorchester, and Newtown 
(Cambridge,) began to find themselves crowded into such 
close neighborhoods, that they had neither land enough 
fit for culture, nor pastures for their cattle.* Especially 
they were in want of meadow lands. They began to cast 
about them for a more ample domain ; and, from the rumors 
that reached them from time to time of the rich intervals 
that lay on either bank of the Connecticut, described m 
such glowing terms by all who brought tidings of their lux- 
uriance, what meadows so likely to make glad their flocks 
and herds, and what fields promised to yield a more grateful 
recompense to the toil of the planter? They dwelt upon 
these pictures until they could no longer banish them from 
their minds. They hesitated, they debated with one another, 
whether they should a second time face the exposures that 
must meet them in a wilderness. But the motives for a 
removal were too strong to be resisted, and, besides, as their 
history has since proved, they were strangers to fear. 1 hey 
resolved to go. But would they be allowed to go ? At first, 
the General Court of Massachusetts consented to it ; yet, 
when it was made known that these adventurers proposed to 
plant a new colony upon the Connecticut river, their enter- 
prise was stoutly opposed. In September, when the court 

* Trumbull, vol. i. p. 38. 



22 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

again met, the matter gave rise to a hot debate. The 
Houses were divided.* There appeared in the field two 
champions of no ordinary character. In 1630, the Rev. 
Thomas Hooker, for some time a minister of the Established 
Church at Chelmsford, in the county of Essex, " was silenced 
for non-conformity." Forty-seven conforming clergymen 
presented a petition in his behalf to the Bishop of London, 
wherein they vouched for the soundness of his doctrines and 
the purity of his life. But their efforts proved unavailing, 
and to save himself from the severities likely to follow his 
recusancy, he fled to Holland. As, in later days, Boling- 
broke and Chesterfield attended upon the preaching of 
Whitefield, and Montague and Mackintosh upon that of 
Robert Hall, so did the Earl of Warwick, and other men of 
note, often go many miles to yield themselves up to the fas- 
cinations of Hooker's eloquence. It is not to be wondered 
at, that the whole body of his parishioners, from whom he 
had been so suddenly torn, felt the keenest anguish at the 
separation, and that a large proportion of them, with the ex- 
pectation that their pastor would follow them, embarked 
soon after for America. Many personal friends and ad- 
mirers of his genius, who had never been connected with 
him by so delicate a tie, were of the same party, A few 
came over at first, and commenced a plantation at Wey- 
mouth. Afterwards, a larger number arrived in the year 
1632, and, with the former, all established themselves at 
Newtown. At their earnest solicitation, to come over and 
place himself at their head, Hooker finally sailed for America, 
with Samuel Stone, his assistant, and arrived in Massachu- 
setts on the 4th of September, 1633. He had been in Mas- 
sachusetts, therefore, only a year, when this interesting ques- 
tion, of the propriety of allowing the petitioners to found a 
new colony, came up for a second discussion. Hooker, who 
had already made up his mind to be of the emigrating party 
should the petition be granted, advocated the cause of the 
people. Most of the other ministers, at the head of whom 

* Winthrop, (Savage's Ed.,) i. p. 168. 



[1634.] DEBATE BETWEEN HOOKER AND COTTON. 23 

was the famous John Cotton, strongly opposed the project. 
Hooker argued their want of room in which to expand 
themselves. It was a vital error, he said, that so many 
towns should be crowded into so small a space. They had 
neither land to till nor for pasturage. The people were 
poor. They were unable, so long as they remained as they 
were, to support their own ministers, much less to give any 
thing in aid of others, who should afterwards come over 
from England in a destitute condition. He set eloquently 
before them the advantages of the country whither it was 
proposed to remove ; the importance of the river, in a mili- 
tary and political point of view ; the close neighborhood of 
the Dutch at Manhattan ; the fact, that they had already a 
trading house in the richest part of the country ; and the 
urgent need there was that immediate possession should be 
secured.* We may well believe, too, that he did not omit 
to set forth in bright colors, the facilities presented by a large 
and navigable stream for commerce ; the rich furs supplied 
by that stream and its many tributaries, in its flow of hun- 
dreds of miles through a wild region, accessible, indeed, 
through the medium of savages, but long to remain unex- 
plored by civilized men. 

On the other hand. Cotton, the most learned and per- 
suasive of the clergy, urged the weakness of Massachu- 
setts ; that its principal poverty was a poverty of men, to 
subdue and cultivate a wilderness large enough to support 
many times their number, and to make a successful stand 
against the tribes of savages that lurked in its solitudes ; 
that those who had sought to leave the colony in this 
defenseless state, had taken a solemn oath to promote the 
interests of the Massachusetts, and that they would violate 
their consciences, were they to desert the commonwealth in 
its infancy, and while it might well be said to be struggling 
for existence. Finally, let the case be as it might with those 
who remained, those who should go would be exposed to the 
horrors of war, both with the Dutch and Indians ; that it 

* Savage's Winthrop, vol. i. p. 167 ; Trumbull, vol. i. p. 58. 



24 HISTORY OF COXXECTICUT. 

would be in a measure a suicidal act, and that it was the 
part of benevolence, rather than of tyranny, that the General 
Court should interpose and prevent a calamity so terrible. 

The whole colony was thrown into a state of intense ex- 
citement by this discussion. Hooker's powerful eloquence, 
poured, as it was, into the popular current, carried along 
with it, as might have been expected, a majority of the rep- 
resentatives. The vote of the assistants was against the 
application, and so, as a matter of course, it was lost.* In 
looking back upon this debate, in v/hich those who took a 
part and felt an interest have all been dead for nearly two 
centuries, and in looking over those vast regions, washed by 
the great lakes, the Pacific, and the gulf of Mexico, divided 
by magnificent rivers — regions teeming now with the pos- 
terity, as well of those who advocated, as of those who op- 
posed an emigration to the valley of the Connecticut — the 
large views and noble liberality of Hooker, exhibited on that 
occasion, assume the dignity of a sublime prophecy, as if he 
must have seen in his mind's eye the millions that were one 
day to inhabit them. 

The fate of the application in the General Court gave a 
temporary check to the plans of Hooker and his friends ; but 
it was far from being satisfactory to the petitioners, and some 
there were who secretly set it at defiance, and resolved to 
remove at all hazards. A number of the inhabitants of 
Watertown, during the fall of the same year, set out for the 
interdicted country ; and, arriving in season to construct tem- 
porary houses in which to pass the winter,t made, it is be- 
lieved, at Pyquaug, (Wethersfield,) the first settlement on the 
Connecticut river. 

In May of the following year, the old application of Hooker 
and his friends was renewed, and leave to remove reluctantly 
granted by the General Court, with the proviso, that those 
who emigrated should still " continue under the jurisdiction 
of Massachusetts." J 



* Savage's Winthrop, i. p. 1G8. t Trumbull, vol. i. p. 59. 

i Savage's Winthrop, vol. i. p. 191. 



[1635.] HAETFORD SETTLED. 25 

During the summer of the same year, several of the people 
belonging to the congregation of the Rev. Mr. Wareham, of 
Dorchester, removed to a point on the river near the Ply- 
mouth trading house, and, much to the alarm of Holmes and 
those whom he represented, prepared to lay the foundations of 
the town of Windsor.* The whole of that season, the Water- 
town settlers, in little parties of a few families, continued to 
make additions to the gallant little company of pioneers at 
Wethersfield. The planters at Newtown were getting ready, 
also, to remove to Hartford the next spring. Thus passed 
the eventful summer of 1635, in bustling preparation, until, in 
the middle of October, when the trees were half stripped of 
their leaves, and the chestnuts and acorns were dropping 
from the boughs in the lovely autumn weather, sixty persons, 
among whom were women and little children, set out on 
their tedious march to the new settlements. They took 
along with them such movable property as they could, in- 
cluding their horses, cattle, and swine. A slow, wearisome 
journey they made of it. They were delayed by so many 
obstacles, that frosts and snows were pressing hard upon them 
before they reached the eastern bank of the Connecticut. 
And so much time was spent in making rafts, and crossing 
the river with their cattle, that they were not ready for win- 
ter when it came. Most of them settled in Hartford. 

In the fall of the same year, came over to America John 
Winthrop, the younger, a commissioned agent of Viscount 
Say and Seal, and the other noblemen, knights, and gentle- 
men, named in the original patent of the colony, f with in- 
structions to repair immediately to the mouth of the Connec- 
ticut river with fifty men, and commence the building of a 
strong fortification, and houses as well for the garrison as for 
gentlemen, expected to arrive in the course of the next year. 
The fort was to be built upon a very large scale, to embrace 
within its inclosure " houses suitable for the reception of 
men of quality," to be erected as soon as practicable. Win- 

* Savage's Winthrop, i. p. 198; Trumbull, vol. i. p. 60. 
t lb. vol. i. pp. 202, 203. 



26 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

throp was directed to take possession of a suitable tract 
of land, near the fort, containing from a thousand to fifteen 
hundred acres, that was to be reserved for the use of the for- 
tification. He was constituted by this commission, " Gov- 
ernor of the river Connecticut," for the space of a year after 
his arrival there. 

When Governor Winthrop arrived in Massachusetts, he 
heard rumors that the Dutch were preparing to anticipate 
him in the erection of a fort at the place named in his com- 
mission. He waited only to collect about twenty men, and 
sent them by sea to take possession of the mouth of the river, 
and to erect embankments, and to plant their cannon there 
with all dispatch. They had much need of haste ; for, 
scarcely had they begun to make themselves ready for de- 
fence, when a Dutch sail from Manhattan was seen making 
for the mouth of the river. The current of the Connecticut, 
at this place, pressed close upon the western bank ; and here, 
upon a bluff that juts out boldly into the deep water, almost 
upon the very line where the river loses itself in the sea, 
Winthrop's men had hastily thrown up their embankments 
and mounted their guns. When the Dutch had approached 
near enough to the land to see the new fortress, with the 
English colors floating above it, they withdrew without any 
show of resistance, leaving the governor's forces in quiet 
possession of the key to the treasures of a country that had 
for some time tempted their cupidity, but was henceforth to 
be forever locked against them. 

I have already alluded to the severity of that memorable 
winter. The garrison at Saybrook suffered severely ; but it 
was reserved to the three settlements further up the valley 
to encounter all the horrors of a winter in the wilderness. 

By the middle of November, the river was frozen com- 
pletely over. The personal effects of the settlers, such as 
they could not well carry with them in their journey through 
the woods, had been forwarded by sea ; but the vessels that 
bore this precious lading, of beds, clothing, and provisions, 
for delicate women and little children, were either wrecked 



[1635.] FAMINE ON THE CONNECTICUT. 27 

upon that coast, even in this age of improved navigation, so 
fatal to mariners, or forced to put back again into Boston 
harbor. By the first of December, the pangs of famine began 
to be added to the numbing influences of cold. With a fru- 
gal hand, the father of the household measured out the stinted 
dole of bread and meat to his offspring, until both bread and 
meat were gone. Corn was bought, in small quantities, of the 
Indians ; but these simple-minded creatures, with their usual 
improvidence, had but too little to spare. Finally, in small 
parties, the inhabitants of the three settlements, regardless 
of all other enemies, fled, pallid with fear, from the agonies 
of starvation. Some crossed the river upon the ice, and, 
committing themselves to the pathless snows, waded back to 
the Massachusetts.* Seventy persons were induced to go 
down to the fort at Saybrook, with the hope of meeting the 
vessels that should have brought their provisions from Boston. 
But they looked in vain for the frail ships, that had proved 
unable to withstand the rocks and shoals whither the blasts 
that sweep the New England coast at that tempestuous sea- 
son of the year had driven them. They went aboard a 
small vessel of sixty tons burden, which they found twenty 
miles above the fort, hoping to be able to sail in her to Mas- 
sachusetts. But they saw that she was fast anchored in 
the ice, and it was two days before they could get her under 
way. With much difficulty, they reached Boston, after a 
dangerous voyage of many days. But of the few that re- 
mained, the condition was still worse. When they had spent 
their small stock of food, and could get no more from the 
Indians, the more hardy of them betook themselves to the 
woods, to hunt the bear and the deer ; and, when this resource 
failed them, they dug up acorns from beneath the snow, and 
ground-nuts from the banks of the streams. Many of their 
cattle died, and those that survived, like their owners, vi^ere 
sickly and drooping. Add to all this bodily suffering, the 
consciousness of utter helplessness. They were alone. The 
Indians, though kind to them, were kind only from motives 

* Savage's Winthrop, i. 207. 



28 ■ HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

of interest or fear. How long would they remain so, was a 
question asked doubtingly, and answered by an apprehensive 
glance of the eye. The vast forest, a familiar home to the sav- 
age, was to them frowning and bewildering. Besides, there 
was something terrific in the consciousness, that the very 
forces of nature, but a few weeks before so genial and 
smiling, were banded together to crush them. Still, they 
hoped and struggled on. In their darkest hours, they never 
forgot the promise, that seed-time and harvest shall not fail. 

At last, the winds began to lull, the snow crumbled and 
slowly melted away, and a few scattered birds began to give 
token that April and the bursting buds were close at hand. 

The Connecticut settlements were nominally under the 
rule of the mother country ; but they really, from the first, 
governed themselves. For three or four years, their courts 
consisted of magistrates, to a number not exceeding six, and 
from nine to twelve committee meo, each town sending an 
equal number. On the 14th of January, 1638-9, it was or- 
dered that, in future, there should be two general courts in each 
year, viz. : on the first Thursdays of April and September — 
the first to be called a court of election, on which occasion 
seven magistrates should be chosen, the governor to be elected 
from among them. It was further ordered, that the towns of- 
Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor, should be entitled to 
four deputies each ; and that the number to be elected in such 
towns as might subsequently be admitted to the jurisdiction, 
should be determined upon according to their population,* 
The special or particular courts, holden in the interim, were 
variously constituted — sometimes a jury being substituted for 
the deputies — three or more of the magistrates being always 
present — the governor, deputy governor, or a moderator, pre- 
siding. f The general courts were invested with all the legisla- 
tive and judicial functions of the colony, including the power of 

* Notwithstanding these provisions of the glorious constitution, (which was 
adopted at the preceding date,) the " committees" continued to attend the court 
until April, 1640, when " deputies" were substituted. 

+ Vide J. Hammond Trumbull's " Colonial Records." 



[1636.] HOOKER AND HIS COMPANY. 29 

making treaties, a power much exercised in alliances with 
the Indians. 

On the 26th of April, 1636, the first court was held in the 
colony. It met at Newtown (soon after named Hartford.) 
Roger Ludlow, Esq., of whose liberal views and far-sighted 
policy, as a statesman, it will be our pleasure by and by to 
treat, was a member. At this court, it was ordered, among 
other excellent sumptuary regulations, that the inhabitants 
should not sell arms and ammunition to the Indians. 

With the first springing of the green grass, and the unfold- 
ing of the leaves, so that their cattle could subsist in the 
woods, those who fled from the plantations in the winter, now 
hastened to return. Others came with them, and others still 
followed them, in little groups, through the whole month of 
May. 

About the beginning of June, the first soft, warm month of 
the New England year, Mr. Hooker, with his assistant, Mr. 
Stone, and followed by about one hundred men, women, 
and children, set out upon the long-contemplated journey. 
Over mountains, through swamps, across rivers, fording, or 
upon rafts, with the compass to point out their irregular way, 
slowly they moved westward ; now in the open spaces of the 
forest, where the sun looked in ; now under the shades of the 
old trees ; now struggling through the entanglement of bushes 
and vines — driving their flocks and herds before them — the 
strong supporting the weak, the old caring for the young, 
with hearts cheerful as the month, slowly they moved on. 
Mrs. Hooker was ill, and was borne gently upon a litter.* 
A statel}^ well-ordered journey it was, for gentlemen of for- 
tune and rank were of the company, and ladies who had 
been delicately bred, and who had known little of toil or 
hardship until now. But they endured it with the sweet 
alacrity that belongs alone to woman, high-toned and gentle, 
when summoned, by a voice whose call can not be resisted, 
to lay aside the trappings of ease, and to step from a position 
that she once adorned, to a level that her presence ennobles 

* Winthrop, i. 223 ; Trumbull, i. 64, 65. 



30 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

The howl of the wolf, his stealthy step among the rustling 
leaves, the sighing of the pines, the roar of the mountain tor- 
rent, losing itself in echoes sent back from rock and hill, the 
smoking ruins of the Indian council fire — all forcing upon the 
mind the oppressive sense of solitariness and danger, the 
more dreaded because unseen — all these, the wife, the mother, 
the daughter, encountered, with a calm trust that they should 
one day see the wilderness blossom as the rose. 

At the end of about two weeks, they reached the land 
almost fabulous to them — so long had hope and fancy been 
shaping to their minds pictures of an ideal loveliness — the 
valley of the Connecticut. It lay at their feet, beneath the 
shadow of the low-browed hills, that tossed the foliage of 
their trees in billows, heaving for miles away to the east and 
w^est, as the breath of June touched them with life. It lay, 
holding its silvery river in its embrace, like a strong bow 
half bent in the hands of the swarthy hunter, who still called 
himself lord of its rich acres. 

Let us, in imagination, stand by the side of those wander- 
ers, now in sight of a resting-place, and look with them on 
their new home. What glorious oaks pierce yonder hill- 
sides with their rugged roots, that, with the lapse of centuries, 
seem never to grow old. What clumps of tulip-trees, each 
shooting high into the air its cluster of quaint-fashioned 
leaves and yellow flowers. More than one of those smooth 
trunks might be hollowed to form as large a canoe as any in 
sight, that ripples over the eddies of the river, or is tied by its 
cord to the trees that grow by the cove. In the thatch grass 
at your feet, some Indian fishermen, with hempen nets or 
hooks of bone, are dragging ashore a score or two of yel- 
low salmon ; and near by, at the entrance of that wigwam, 
where the smoke rises so faintly, a few squaws are kindling 
a fire of drift wood to broil a meal for their lazy lords, 
that they will eat in approving silence. There are some 
fields of hemp growing ; and further on is a clearing in the 
woods, though here and there a scattered tree with its rough 
bark has escaped the fire that felled its companions, where 



THE FUTURE. 31 

you may see maize, and beans, and squashes, struggling with 
the grass that taxes the strength of the squaws to keep it 
down. Who ever saw such patriarchal elms, with such 
gracefully spreading branches, that droop till they dip their 
leaves in the brim of the river ? At intervals, up and down 
the valley, are the log huts erected by their friends who pre- 
ceded them, that rest in the eye of these tired travelers more 
lovingly than the pleasant manor houses and cottages that 
they have left behind them. Here these men shall found a 
city, the capital of a State that shall not be unknown to 
fame, that shall extend itself under the influences of mild 
laws, equally administered, contending bravely for its rights, 
sometimes for its existence, on fields of battle, against wild 
savages, against the armies of France ; and she confesses 
with tears, yet not with shame, that the most bloody conflict, 
in the course of two centuries, to be recorded by her histo- 
rian, was with the children of the country from which her 
founders fled, contending for principles planted, by Hooker 
and such as he, ineradicably in the soil. 



CHAPTER II. 

CONNECTICUT A WILDERNESS. THE PEQUOT WAR AND ITS CAUSES. 

The difficulties that were to be encountered by the Eng- 
lish in making settlements in Connecticut, can hardly be 
estimated by us who now occupy the same territGry. We 
have our sea-ports, our cities, our villages, swarming with a 
thriving population. The steam engine is hurrying us from 
one great business centre to another with astonishing velocity, 
dragging in its train the products of our varied industry, and 
bringing back those of all nations in return. We have our 
banks and other corporations, that represent the accumulated 
earnings both of the dead and living ; our city mansions, our 
hospitable country houses, surrounded by their well-tilled 
acres, where the ploughshare, as it glides along, is scarcely 
obstructed by the roots of the forest trees, that once lay 
coiled like serpents beneath the sod. 

Forest trees, standing alone, or in the scattered patches 
of our woodlands, we have still remaining, though constantly 
decreasing in number and size, and gradually withdrawing 
from our habitations to the tops of mountains or the beds 
of streams, where yet they may be safe for a little while, until 
the necessities of some newly-built furnace or manufactory 
shall follow them even there. 

How different is the Connecticut of to-day from that of the 
first half of the seventeenth century ! With the exception 
of the clearings made by the Indians, by burning over the 
bent grass and dry leaves in the fall or spring, for the pur- 
poses of hunting or of their meagre tillage, the whole country 
was covered with primitive trees. The oak, the chestnut, 
the pine in all its varieties, the walnut, the cedar, the wild 
cherry, the maple, — these, with other sturdy trees that thrive 
in high or temperate latitudes, here shot up and grew luxuri- 
antly, extending over the rough country and the smooth for 



GAME IN THE FOREST. 83 

hundreds of miles, — trees of no puny growth, for they fed on 
the decayed trunks of other trees, their predecessorSj and on 
the leaves that annually fell and slowly mouldered above 
their roots. Every year their season of growth was brief, 
for then, as now, summer came late, and did not tarry long ; 
yet they grew with wonderful rapidity, usurping to them- 
selves all the richness of the soil. Many of them, especially 
oaks, pines, and elms, attained a vast size, for they stood in 
such close neighborhood that their branches intertwined and 
screened each other from the ice and snows that loaded them, 
and the winds that buffeted them in vain. Not broken, as 
our thin woods are in modern times, from exposure to the 
fierceness of the elements, they kept their vigor and grew 
for many ages. They sheltered a great variety of wild 
animals — for game, the moose, the deer, the bear ; along the 
streams, the otter, the beaver, and many other fur- producing 
animals, that requited well the labors of the trapper. There 
were not a few of the destructive order. Wolves, in thous- 
ands, infested the new settlements. They killed the cattle, 
they stole and carried off the sheep, and did what they could 
by their unearthly bowlings at night, to add to the horrors 
that thickened on the skirts of the wilderness. It will be a 
part of our task to call to the reader's mind the many stat- 
utes that our ancestors passed to regulate those unruly citi- 
zens — how they kept watch and ward to defend against 
them — how they set bounties upon the heads and ears of 
those who offended by coming within a given number of 
miles of their settlements, and how these depredators proved, 
after all, incorrigible, and with their fellow malefactors, the 
bears and catamounts, could only be brought into subjection 
by totally exterminating the whole race, the innocent with 
the guilty. Wild-fowl also abounded in the woods. Tur- 
keys, more swift -footed than the Indian runners themselves, 
and of a size almostijacredible, were nearly as numerous as 
the fallen logs beneath which they hatched their young. 
Pigeons innumerable might be seen on the wing constantly 
in the spring and autumn days, or startled in the midsummer 



34 HISTOEY OF COXXECTICUT. 

from the thicket where they had built their nests. In the 
lakes and rivers were plenty of wild geese, and the whole 
duck family in all its varieties.* All the little creeks and 
inlets of Long Island sound, sent ashore their treasures of 
lobsters, oysters, and other shellfish of all sorts, that how 
supply the tables of the inhabitants, as well of those who 
dwell inland, as of those who inhabit the sea-shore. 

Within the limits of Connecticut, as its boundaries are now 
fixed, were probably from twelve to fifteen thousand f Indians, 
broken into many clans or tribes, speaking different dialects, 
that had a common basis, so that the individuals belonging 
to one tribe could understand the words spoken by those of 
another. All their gestures, too, and ordinary modes of life — 
their rules of war and of peace, their traditionary laws, their 
gods, their heaven and hell, had a common origin. They 
were quite unequally distributed in different parts of the com- 
monwealth. Those who lived on either bank of the Con- 
necticut, and were hence called river Indians, were nearly 
all within the old hmits of Windsor, Hartford, Wethers- 
field, and Middletown. There were ten sovereignties of 
them in Windsor alone, who could muster, it was said, an 
aggregate of two thousand bowmen. Hartford swarmed 
with them. We shall name only a few of the tribes now, 
reserving a more particular notice of them when we come 
to treat of the places where they lived, as each, in its order 
of time, we gather the new plantations or towns into the con- 
stantly enlarging circle reclaimed by our fathers from the 
solitudes of nature. 

We must not omit, however, to make allusion to the In- 
dians called Pequots and ]Mohegans, who occupied a large 
tract of country, about thirty miles square, extending from 

* Hoyt's Indian Wars. 

t The number has been variously estimated by different historians, some placing 
it as high as twentj' thousand, while Mr. Deforest, in his " Historj' of the Con- 
necticut Indians," estimates the number at from six to seven thousand only. A 
careful investigation of all the accessible authorities, leads us to the conclusion 
that the number stated in our text can not be far from the truth. 



SASSACCS. 35 

the Connecticut river, on the west, to the Xarragansett coun- 
try, on the east, and from the sea-coast, on the south, to the 
northern boundary hne of the colony — making up the whole 
of the counties of New London and Windham, with a large 
part of Tolland county. Though usually treated of by histo- 
rians as separate tribes, yet they do not appear to have been 
so, except that Uncas, the Mohegan chief, who was too am- 
bitious, himself, to favor the aspiring views of Sassacus, the 
head sachem of the Pequots, thought it best, from motives 
of policy, to take the part of the English settlers, in order 
that he might find in them an ally against the burdensome 
power of his superior chieftain. Uncas was a rebel chief, 
who was glad to avail himself of such aid as he could find, and 
the more powerful the better, against his master. Why he has 
received the laudations of so many writers, it is not easy to see, 
unless, in their love of the treason that helped them to crush 
a troublesome enemy, they have learned also to cherish the 
memor}^ of the traitor. 'For ourselves, we set a much lower 
estimate upon the character of this Indian, than upon that 
of the Pequot chief, who fought the English to the last hour 
of his life, and scorned to ask quarter of those to whom he 
had himself denied it. As the event proved, Uncas was 
doubtless the shrewder politician of the two ; and was too 
cunning, after witnessing the prowess of his new allies, ever 
to think of deserting them. Uncas, both by his father's and 
mother's side, was descended from the royal Pequot line, and 
he also married a daughter of a Pequot chief; so that he is 
entitled to whatever honor can be derived from rejoicing 
over the downfall of the family and the nation from which he 
sprung. 

Sassacus was the most intractable and proud of all the 
New England Indians. He is described as having excelled 
all the other men of his tribe in courage and address as a 
warrior, as much as that tribe surpassed all the neighboring 
ones in its haughty claims to dominion. Sassacus had 
twenty-six sachems under him, when the English settlers 
first came to the Connecticut river. His most familiar 



36 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

haunts were in the present towns of Groton and New Lon- 
don. He had two harbors, one at the mouth of the Pequot 
river, (now called the Thames,) and the other at the mouth 
of the river Mistick. He had also two principal forts. The 
larger one occupied the summit of a high hill, that looks off 
upon the indented line of the shore and the quiet waters of 
that part of the Atlantic that is shut away from the main by 
the low sandy barrier of Long Island — a little archipelago, 
as viewed from this eminence, containing in its bosom a 
cluster of islands as lovely as any that lie in the embraces of 
the ocean. Here, in such rude state as savages know how 
to put on, lived Sassacus, keeping watch over his fishing- 
coast and hunting-grounds, administering justice after the 
rude manner of his ancestors, punishing rebels, bringing 
home the scalps of conquered chiefs, and sending his haughty 
messengers for hundreds of miles, into far off regions, whose 
inhabitants trembled at the terrors of his name. In the ex- 
pressive language of those who feared him, he was " all one 
god." Here, by the copious spring that still bubbles up to the 
lips of him who goes thither to read the lost memorials of a 
nation now extinct, he had gathered the grim trophies of his 
savage grandeur; here, were his treasures of wampum, his 
armory of war clubs, and bows, and arrows pointed with bone 
or flint. 

A few miles to the eastward of this fort, and having a 
pleasant lookout upon the adjacent country, and his harbor at 
the mouth of the river Mistick, was the other fort just named. 

I have been thus minute in regard to this sachem and his 
tribe, because their fate is first in the order of events to be 
set forth in this work. But, before proceeding to the details 
of a story not so pleasant to dwell upon as to induce us to 
hasten our steps, let us premise a few words in reference to 
the personal appearance, character, and habits, of the Con- 
necticut Indians. 

They were almost without exception athletic, well-developed 
men, tall, graceful in their movements, with not very regular 
features, high cheek-bones, thin lips, black eyes, and coarse 



TRAITS OF THE INDIANS, 37 

hair of the same color. They dressed in a fantastic, yet very 
becoming manner, in the skins of wild beasts, the warriors 
having an eye to the picturesque and the terrible, seeking to 
make themselves as frightful as possible when they went forth 
to make war. The women wore petticoats of skins about 
the loins, extending below the knees. The chiefs wore belts 
of wampum, some of them very costly and beautiful, and of a 
variety of colors. When dressed for a war council, they 
were decorated with great care and magnificence. 

The Indian was roving and untamable in his disposition. 
He set a high value upon demeanor. Possessed of the most 
intense curiosity, he habitually hid it beneath the mask of a 
stony indifference. He was proud, beyond all other men, both 
by nature and education. He has been called cowardly in 
his mode of warfare,* But when it is recollected how puny 
were his offensive w^eapons, how slight those of defense, how 
little his dress protected his person, and how deadly were the 
guns of the English, we ought not to form hasty conclusions 
adverse to his valor. The Indians were not wanting in intel- 
lectual endowments. They had little sympathy with external 
nature, and yet they were from necessity keen observers of 
all natural phenomena. They had a rude, wild gift of elo- 
quence, highly impassioned, abounding in metaphors some- 
times extravagant, always bold and striking. In all their 
allusions to the glory of their ancestors, and the places where 
their bones had been laid, they spoke with a delicate sim- 
plicity, that formed a striking contrast with the frigid selfish- 
ness that is stamped as indelibly upon the Indian character as 
it is written legibly in his face. They were too good tacti- 
tians to be trustworthy as friends. As enemies, they were 

* From the frequent taunts made by the Indians to the inmates of the fortifica- 
tion at Saybrook, we may infer that they regarded it as the perfection of cow- 
ardice to fight from behind the walls of a fort. " Come out here, and fight like 
men," was their summons to the English ; yet, no sooner was the call complied 
with, than the wily savages flew to the thicket for shelter, and there, skulking 
behind trees, or beneath the tall underbrush, sent forth the swift messengers of 
death upon their enemies. Self-protection was the object in both cases, though 
different means were used to attain the end. 



38 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

implacable, and seldom suffered the embers of an old feud to 
go out in their bosoms. They schooled themselves to endure 
tortures, the most excruciatinfji; that can rack the human 
frame, with a grim composure of countenance, or smilingly 
courted still keener agonies by menacing gestures, scornful 
distortions of the lip, and the most insulting way of rolling 
the eye-balls in the presence of their tormentors. The most 
complex tortures known to the traditionary code of the Indian, 
called forth from the victim no confession of their efficacy. 
Limb after limb might be torn from him, his face mutilated, his 
tongue plucked out by the roots, his body scorched in the hot 
breath of the flames that wreathed around the stake, still, like 
the images of stone that embodied his rude ideal of a creating 
intelligence, he preserved his scornfulness of look, until his 
spirit left the shriveled body for such a heaven as the tradi- 
tions of his people had promised to the warrior whose brown 
cheek had never paled with fear. 

The male Indians did little manual labor. They spent 
their time in hunting:, fishinor contrivino; wars and executing 
them, or, when leisure was allowed for indulgence, in a dull 

7 7 O ^ 

round of animal enjoyments. They had no regular division 
of time, ate no regular meals, and had no hours set apart for 
social enjoyment. While her lord lay under the shade of a 
tree within sight of the cornfield, and snored away the hours 
of a summer afternoon, the squaw turned up the sods, and 
drew the dark, rich loam around the maize ; or, not far off, 
in the mortar that had been worn ages before in some earth- 
fast rock, her stone pestle fell in regular strokes upon the 
shining kernels that she had raised the year before, and laid 
carefully aside, to furnish the requisite supply of "samp," 
that constituted the staple of the Indian's food. As might 
be inferred from their habits, the squaws were strong ana 
hardy, and more capable of enduring fatigue than the men, 
though their figures were not so slender and graceful. Of 
household furniture they had little. A few cooking vessels 
of wood and stone, a knife made of shell or a species of reed, 
made up nearly the whole inventory. They had stone axes, 



INDIAN ARTS AND MANUFACTURES, 39 

too, and chisels. Their most delicate manufactures were 
weapons of war. Of these, they had a good variety, and 
they were often wrought by the warriors themselves. The 
most graceful, as well as the most complex, appear to have 
been the bow and arrow. The bow was made of ash, oak, 
walnut, but especially of the sassafras, the most elastic and 
fragrant of all the kinds of wood known to them. Their 
bow strings were made of hemp, or of the sinews of the deer. 
The swamps supplied them with an abundance of reeds for 
arrows, and some of them were carefully wrought of wood. 
They were all loaded with a piece of flint stone, or bone, 
sharpened to a point, and shaped like a spearhead, that 
steadied their flight, and made them, in the hands of such 
good marksmen as the Indians were, formidable weapons.* 
They had, also, a prominent weapon, the well-known toma- 
hawk — a name terrible to us from associations of horrible 
cruelty connected with its use in all wars waged by them 
against the English. This weapon was made of various 
materials, and was of various forms of construction. It was 
either a short, strong club of hard wood, with one of its ends 
fitted to the hand, and the other in the form of a large knob 
of deer's horn ; or else it was a hatchet of stone, with a 
grooved neck for the reception of the little stick that was 
twisted around it as a handle. This weapon the warriors 
managed with a great deal of skill, and threw to a considera- 
ble distance with fatal dexterity and force. They made spears, 
too, several feet long, with heads of stone like their arrows. f 
Lastly, as connected with the science of war, they had 
some skill in the manufacture of canoes. In Connecticut, 
these do not appear to have been made of bark, but of the 
vast trunks of trees. The pine and whitewood, or tulip-tree, 
were usually selected. Some of these trees shot upward 
seventy or eighty feet, straight as an arrow, before sending 
out a limb. As fire was the main as;ent in felling the tree 
and hollowing it, the task of making a canoe must have been 
almost as formidable as our own ship-building. 

* Trumbull, i. 47, 48. + Deforest's History of the Indians of Conn. p. 6. 



40 HISTORY OF COXNECTICUT. 

Like many other pagan nations, the Indian deities repre- 
sented the abstract idea of force — illimitable, indeterminate 
force. They worshiped the elements. The waters, whether 
rolling between the banks of rivers, or tossing, white capped, 
upon the shores of the sea ; the fire, the lightning, the thun- 
der, the wind — nature in all her rude forms — every phe- 
nomenon that seemed to bespeak a power superior to their 
own, they deemed worthy of homage, but propably not so 
much as gods as the symbols of gods. Of these deities, there 
were two of especial note. The first was called Kitchtan, 
or Kritchtan, and was believed to be the benevolent or " good 
god," who cared for them in this world, and received the 
souls of the good and brave when they died. He was the 
Great Spirit of the Indian's heaven. He lived in a lovely land, 
far away to the sweet south-west, beyond the hills where the 
haze of the Indian summer rested like a dim dream, inhabit- 
ing hunting grounds where the deer and the moose awaited 
his children ; a land of plenty, a land of rest from labor and 
freedom from care, where the warrior could sate himself in 
the enjoyment of those animal pleasures that could alone 
make up the Indian's heaven. To this land they made ready 
to go. The young brave had it in his eye when he went 
forth to battle ; the old chief spoke of it to his children when 
he laid himself down upon his mat to die. There they were 
to meet to part no more. 

But the deity who received most of their offerings, was Hob- 
bomocko, the representative of the principle of evil.* Love 
him they could not, for not one of his attributes was lovely ; 
but, true to the instincts of the savage, they feared him, and, 
therefore, from motives of policy, they worshiped him. It 
has been thought that they sacrificed human victims to him. 
At any rate, they set apart a large share of their most valua- 
ble property for the festal days consecrated to him, and 
burned it with well-dissembled pleasure, in the hope of delud- 
ing him into the belief that they revered and honored him. 
These ceremonies were usually connected with some great 

* Ti-umbull, i. 43, 



GOVERNMENT OF THE ABORIGINES. 41 

public event or threatened public calamity,* and were con- 
ducted by a class of men set apart for that purpose — a kind 
of priesthood, who were called Powaws. At these solemn! 
ties, they danced in rings around great fires, and made a 
variety of such hideous noises that the English pioneers 
regarded with aversion and horror these unholy rites, where 
they had good reason to believe the devil presided. 

The government of the Indians was an hereditary mon- 
archy, in theory absolute, and virtually so, where the chief, 
like Sassacus, was a man of great prowess in war, and supe- 
rior wisdom in council. f But in all cases he was surrounded 
by an aristocracy, who claimed a right to be consulted in 
matters of public importance. This aristocracy was made 
up of men selected from the wisest and bravest of the tribe, 
who constituted not only the privy counselors, but also the 
body-guard of the monarch. From childhood they were 
inured to hardships and fatigue, fed upon coarse fare, and 
made to drink decoctions of bitter roots and herbs, that they 
might be the "more acceptable to Hobbomocko." The}^ were 
called Paniese. They, in common with the Powaws, exalted 
themselves in the estimation of the lower orders, by visions 
and revelations of a spiritual kind, and by interviews with 
Hobbomocko, face to face. These they related to the credu- 
lous multitude in the most extravagant language, enforced by 
the wildest gestures. 

When Winslow and his handful of Plymouth men first 
made the acquaintance of the powerful Massasoit, and when, 
at a later day, the chiefs that lived in the neighborhood of 
Boston walked into the new settlement to sate their curi- 
osity, by looking upon the humble state of the governor of 
Massachusetts, it seemed a pleasant thing to them that this 
little company of pale-faced men had come among them. It 
broke up for a while the monotony of savage life, and, besides, 
it promised to the politic sachem the advantages of a lucra- 
tive traffic. It gratified, too, his vanity, that court should be 
paid to him by men of such strange attire, and of wealth to 

* Mather's Magnalia, iii. 192. + Trumbull, i. 51. 



42 HISTORY OF COXNECTICUT. 

him so boundless. Even after he had learned how fatal to 
the moose and the deer, the wolf and the bear, were the 
weapons of the English planter, still it did not occm' to him 
that the same weapons could be turned upon him with the 
Hke destructive eflects ; and after he had learned that guns 
were more deadly in war than bows and arrows, his mind was 
directed rather to the injury they might do to his enemies than 
intimidated by the anticipation that they might one day be 
turned against himself. Hence, each chief courted an alli- 
ance with the new race, never once dreaming that a few 
farmers, who busied themselves with tasks fit, in his estima- 
tion, only for women, would soon get possession of the 
choicest lands that had been transmitted throu2;h a long 
line of Indian kings, and, finally, rising up as one man, 
would sweep whole tribes from the earth, and blot out their 
proudest names from remembrance. Uncas was doubtless 
leaQ-ued with the Connecticut river sachems in urffins; the 
English to make settlements there. He felt that he had 
nothing to lose, and much to gain, by calling to his aid new 
men and a new mode of warfare, well adapted to strike 
terror into the minds of his enemies. 

Scarcely had the first log cabin been built by the pioneers 
in the valley of the Connecticut, when the high-spirited Sas- 
sacus, forecasting the growth and fruitfulness of resources 
incident to the English race, began to devise means for their 
destruction. An Indian runner would carry news through 
the woods at the rate of eighty, and sometimes an hundred, 
miles a day, and the nimble couriers of this ambitious chief- 
tain were seen flying in every direction. They represented 
the white men as rapidly advancing, driving the Indian as 
the fire drives the deer, when it sweeps over a hunting- 
ground — that one or the other of these races must give place. 
They advocated a war of extermination, as absolute as was 
destined to overtake them. 

Sassacus also sent out little depredating parties, who lay 
in ambush near the new settlements, and committed sad rav- 
ages upon the inhabitants. They stole cattle from them. 



[1634.] MURDER OF STOXE AND XORTOX. 43 

They shot arrows, from their secret lurking-places, at the 
farmer when he went into his field in the morning, or buried 
the stone hatchet in the forehead of his wife, and dashed out 
the brains of his little children, when they were left unpro- 
tected at home. 

In the year 1634, two traders, Captain Stone and Captain 
Norton, came up the Connecticut river with the design of 
trafficking with the Dutch at Hartford. They hired Indian 
pilots to direct them, as they were ignorant of the channel. 
Two of the crew were sent forward to Dutch Point, with 
those pilots. Faithless guides they proved to be, for they 
murdered both the Englishmen at night while they slept.* 

There were twelve Indians on board Stone's vessel, and 
while it was anchored near shore at night, and while Stone 
was asleep in his cabin, they stole upon him and murdered 
him, hiding his body beneath some rubbish. They then 
made an attack upon the crew, with little resistance, and 
killed them all except Norton, who betook himself to the 
cook room, and fought desperately, and with such address, 
that it seemed for a long time doubtful how the battle would 
end ; when, at last, his powder, that had been put in an open 
vessel, took fire, and so blinded and mutilated him that he 
was disabled and slain. The booty that resulted from this 
treacherous skirmish was shared between the Pequots and 
the western Nihanticks. Sassacus and Ninigret, the sachems 
of these tribes, doubtless had a secret agency in the business, 
as they partook of the plunder. 

Soon after this outrage, unprovoked, so far as can now be 
known, the deep-seated hostility that existed between the 
Narragansetts and Pequots began to exhibit itself. The 
Narragansetts had already dug up the hatchet, and were 
sending out their runners against their old enemy, Sassacus. 
They were making preparations for a general war. The 
Dutch, too, had paid an old debt of revenge for some injuries 
done to them, by killing a Pequot sachem, together with some 

* Trumbull, i. 70 ; Wintlirop, i. 146 ; Miss Caulkins' Hist. New Loudon, 27, 
28; Mass. Hist. Collections, viii. 130, new series. 



44 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

of his warriors, and taking others captive. Sassacus and 
his paniese, began to be alarmed. What was to be done ? 
There was much need of a good ally. At last, it was re- 
solved by the Pequots to send a messenger to the English in 
the Massachusetts, with the view of making a league, offen- 
sive and defensive, with them. In November of the same 
year, the Pequot courier presented himself before the gov- 
ernor at Boston, and made proposals for a treaty. But the 
governor, not satisfied with the credentials of the ambassador, 
and, doubting his rank, put himself upon his dignity as the 
representative of the people, and told him frankly that he did 
not like his quality, and that the Pequots must send men of 
more weight and consequence, or he could not treat with them. 
The messenger, rather humbled, one would think, in being 
the bearer of his own disgrace at a foreign court, seems to 
have done his errand faithfully, for in due time two ministers 
plenipotentiary appeared, armed with an acceptable present, 
and of a gravity of character suitable to the business in hand. 
His excellency said he was not averse to peace, but that there 
were some old scores to be settled between the two powers. 
He charged the Pequots with the murder of Captain Stone 
and his crew, and said that the perpetrators of it must be 
given up to him for punishment. The ambassadors made 
answer, that Stone was any thing but what he should have 
been ; that he had abused the Indians, and tempted them to 
kill him. They further urged, that their nation was not re- 
sponsible for this murder, as they had neither plotted nor 
sanctioned it ; that it was the work of one of the inferior 
chiefs, who acted without authority from his master, and 
that he had already been slain by the Dutch. Finally, they 
alleged, that only two of the authors of this crime survived, 
and they promised to use their influence with Sassacus to 
induce him to deliver them up to justice. They begged the 
English to send a vessel with cloths to trade with them, and 
proposed to give them whatever title they had to the lands 
on the Connecticut river, if they would send men to live 
there. They also promised to give to their new ally four 



[1635.] JOHN OLDHAM KILLED, 45 

hundred fathom of wampum, forty beaver skins, and thirty- 
otter skins. 

The treaty was at last estabhshed between the two powers, 
with the usual solemnities, much after the terms proposed by 
the Pequots. 

How much sincerity there was on the part of tiie Indians 
in making these overtures, it is difficult to say. If honest at 
the time, their habitual fickleness and love of excitement pre- 
vented them from enjoying the blessings of an alliance that 
had cost them so much trouble in the making, and was liable 
to misconstructions of every sort, as well from the old jeal- 
ousies that beset it on every side, as from the different char- 
acter, habits, and languages of the contracting parties. 

The next year, while Mr. John Oldham was trafficking 
with the Indians off Block Island, a large number of them 
made an attack upon him while on board his pinnace, and 
killed him. John Gallop, who was engaged in the same traf- 
fick not long after, sailing near enough to Oldham's vessel to 
see that her deck was swarming with Indians, readily divined 
what had happened. He bore down upon the pinnace, and, 
with one man and two boys, (his whole crew,) gave them 
such showers of duck shot that he soon drove them under 
hatches. He then stood off, and, with crowded canvas and 
a brisk sail, ran down upon the pinnace, striking her quarter 
with such violence that he nearly overset her. Six of the 
Indians, under the terrors inspired by this new mode of war- 
fare, plunged overboard and were drowned. He repeated 
this experiment, again striking the pinnace with such force 
that he bored her with his anchor, and might have had 
trouble in disentangling himself from her had not the terri- 
fied savages allowed him to have it all his own way, A 
third time he bore down upon her with such address, that 
several more of the savages leapt into the sea. Gallop then 
boarded her and took two prisoners, one of whom he bound 
and threw overboard.* Two or three others, who had taken 
refuge below and armed themselves, could not be driven from 

* Miss Caulkins' Hist. New London, 29. 



46 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

their retreat. Oldham's dead body was found on board, the 
head spht in half, and the trunk and limbs brutally mangled. 
It lay hidden under a fishing net.* Gallop had no difficulty 
in recognizing the remains, and exclaimed, as he washed the 
blood from the ghastly features of the murdered man, " Oh, 
brother Oldham, is it thou ? I am resolved to avenge thee !"t 
Mutilated as was the dead body, Gallop committed it to the 
sea with reverent hands. After these simple obsequies were 
over, they stripped the pinnace of her rigging and what- 
ever lading the Indians had left on board, and proceeded to 
tow her into port ; but the wind rose as the sun went down, 
and they were obliged to cut her adrift. 

There is little reason to doubt that Oldham was the victim 
of unprovoked, premeditated murder. He was from Dor- 
chester, and was a respectable trader. The Block Island and 
Narragansett Indians executed this plot, which was contrived, 
as was supposed, by several of the Narragansetts. Whether 
the Pequots helped to plan the murder, was never distinctly 
proved; but it is most probable that they did, as they secreted 
and protected several of the conspirators, who took refuge 
among them. 

Had it been known to our ancestors, as it is known to us, 
how little power the great sachems had to control the con- 
duct of their petty chiefs, perhaps some of the darkest annals 
of our colony might never have been penned. Canonicus, 
the wise and noble sachem of the Narragansetts, disclaimed 
any knowledge of this murder, and felt keenly the suspicion 
that rested upon his tribe. He took the most stringent 
measures to find out the authors of it. 

The governor, " by the advice of the magistrates and min- 
isters" of Massachusetts, resolved that the Block Island In- 
dians should be chastised. To execute this rash penalty, 
ninety men were sent under the command of John Endicott. 
Endicott was ordered to sail for Block Island, and put to 
death all the men on it, take the women and children prisoners, 

* Savage's Winthrop, i. 226 ; History of Boston, by S. G. Drake, Esq., p. 198. 
t History of Boston, by Drake, 199. 



[1G36.] endicott's expeditiok. 47 

and carry them to Boston.* This was to avenge the death 
of Oldham. Having done this, he was directed to sail for 
Pequot harbor, demand of the Pequots the murderers of Cap- 
tain Stone, (whose death that tribe had already atoned for, 
as they supposed, by executing such terms of the late treaty 
as they could,) and one thousand fathom of wampum, as well 
as some Pequot children as hostages. If the Pequots failed 
to meet these demands, he was to use force. 

Endicott repaired to Block Island, and arrived there on the 
last day of August. The surf rolled so high that he could 
scarcely land his men. Indian warriors, to the number of 
sixty, met him on the beach. But, in spite of the surf and 
the natives, he at length got his troops ashore. The island, 
called by the Indians Manisses, or the Island of the Little God, 
was mostly covered with small sand hills, that were over- 
grown with dwarf oaks. To the shelter afforded by this 
forbidding screen, the Indians betook themselves, firing their 
arrows behind them as they fled. There were two large 
plantations upon the island, with about sixty wigwams. The 
Indians had on these plantations two hundred acres of corn, 
a part of it piled in heaps and a part still standing. In two 
days, Endicott hunted out and killed fourteen Indians, de- 
stroyed the corn, staved in the canoes, and burned every 
wigwam that he could find.f He then set sail for the Pequot 
country. On his way he stopped at Saybrook, and reported 
to Gardiner, who commanded at the fort, what he had done. 
Gardiner, who thought the Narragansetts, and not the Block 
Island Indians, were guilty of the murder of Oldham, com- 
plained bitterly of this rash step. "You come hither," said 
he, " to raise these wasps about my ears, and then you will 
take wing and flee away."J This metaphor, as is often the 
case with figurative language, embodied a sad truth, that was 
but too well understood in Connecticut not long after. 

The Massachusetts leader lost no time in reaching Pequot 
harbor. The Pequots were taken by surprise by this visit. 

* Drake's History of Boston, 201. f Drake, 202. 

t Savage's Winthrop, i. 231, 232; Trumbull, i. 73. 



48 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

They came cautiously down to the shore, and there learned 
from the invader the nature of his errand. This landing- 
place was on the eastern side of the harbor, and the ascent 
that the English toiled to gain, has since been consecrated 
by the blood of Ledyard and his brave compatriots, who 
have given to fort Griswold a fame that will outlast the mon- 
ument that towers above the spot.* At length they reached 
a cultivated country, where the humble habitations of the 
natives rose out of the cornfields that stretched along the hill- 
sides, and looked off upon the harbor and river that bore the 
name of the Pequot, and afforded many a stealthy glimpse 
of the sea-shore. 

Endicott had, from his first arrival, told the Indians that 
he must have the heads of the men who had killed Stone, or 
else, said he, "we will fight." He also demanded an inter- 
view with Sassacus. He was told that the chief was at 
Long Island and could not be seen.f He then asked to see 
the sachem who was next in rank ; and after much delay, and 
not until the English had reached the high land, whence they 
could see the Indian huts, were they told that the chief of 
whoni they were in search, was found. Endicott ordered a 
halt, and here the cunning savages kept him in parley for four 
hours, while they could find time to remove their women and 
children to a safe hiding place, and secrete their most val- 
uble personal property. When this was done,'^the nimble- 
footed warriors began to retire, leaving the English leader in 
such ill humor with himself for having been outwitted, that 
he ordered the drum to beat and the troops to advance upon 
them. The savages let fly their arrows at a safe distance 
from behind the rocks and trees. Endicott now advanced 
upon the deserted wigwams, and burnt them to ashes. Then 
he destroyed the corn that was growing, and dug up that 
which had been buried in the earth by the Indians. He spent 
the whole day in this work of destruction, and at night re- 
embarked with his men. J ^■' 



* Miss Caulkins' New Ijondoti, 31. t Savage's Winthrop, i. 232. 

t Drake, 202. Tliis learned antiquarian and historian is free to acknowledge 



[1636.] BUTTERFIELD CAPTURED. 49 

The next day they landed on the west side of the river, 
upon the site of the town of New London, and burned and 
desolated the country in a similar manner. They then sailed 
for Narragansett bay, leaving the twenty men who had joined 
the expedition at Saybrook fort to return at their leisure. 
Gardiner had furnished these men, though he was opposed to 
the enterprise. He had also provided them with bags to be 
filled with corn. "Sirs," said he, after entering his protest 
against the enterprise, " Sirs, seeing you will go, I pray you, 
if you don't load your barks with Pequots, load them with 
corn." 

Pursuant to this advice, soon after Endicott had sailed, the 
men furnished by Gardiner went ashore and filled their bags 
with corn. They were on a second visit to the corn-fields, 
and had filled their bags again, when they were startled by 
frightful yells. The owners of the property had caught them 
in the very act, and their arrows sped so nimbly among the 
plunderers, that they were forced to drop their sacks and 
stand on the defensive. This they did so boldly, that the 
Indians, who fought in their usual irregular way, were soon 
checked. Yet the attack was so often renewed, that the 
English did not reach their shallops again until nearly night. 

Thus ended this unlucky expedition of John Endicott; but 
it was followed by a long train of unhappy events. The wasps 
were indeed stirred up, and their sting was poisonous and 
deadly. The first attack was made upon the Saybrook fort, 
whither the corn had been transported. Perhaps the Pequots 
reasoned as the ministers and magistrates of Massachusetts 
had done, that they who shared the plunder were responsible 
for the bloodshed. 

Early in October, as five men belonging to the garrison 
were carrying home hay from the meadows, the Pequots con- 
cealed themselves in the tall grass, surrounded them, and took 
one Butterfield prisoner. The rest escaped. Butterfield was 

the impolicy as well as the injustice of Endicott's expedition. lie did not cripple 
the enemy in the least, but only served to exasperate them, and arouse in their 
bosoms the most implacable hatred toward the English. 

4 



60 HISTOEY OF CONNECTICUT. 

roasted alive, with the most brutal tortures. During the 
same month, one Tilly, the master of a small vessel, was 
taken captive by the Pequots, as he was sailing down the 
Connecticut river. He had anchored his craft about three 
miles above the fort, and imprudently gone ashore in a canoe 
with a single attendant to shoot wild-fowl. The first dis- 
charge of his gun was a signal for a large body of Pequots, 
who lurked in the woods, to rush upon him. They took Tilly 
alive and killed his attendant. They then set themselves to 
the task of destroying Tilly by piecemeal. The captive 
knew enough of their war custojns to be aware that any 
show of submission on his part would be treated with scorn. 
He therefore remained passive, as an Indian brave would 
have done in his situation. First they cut off his hands. 
He made no complaint. Then, in their barbarous way, they 
amputated his feet. Not a groan escaped him. Thus they 
continued to follow him up with their most ingenious modes 
of torture, until he died. Even in death, his features showed 
no traces of pain. His admiring tormentors left his remains 
with the merited eulogy that he was a " stout man."* 

Nothing could exceed the activity of these Indians, now 
that they were thoroughly aroused. They lurked in the low- 
lands that surrounded the fort like a malaria. They stole 
up and down the river by night and day, watching for vic- 
tims. A house had been built for the uses of the garrison 
about two miles from the fort, and six men were now sent to 
guard it. Three of them went out upon the same errand that 
had cost Tilly his life, when one hundred Pequots rose against 
them and took two of them. The other escaped, wounded 
with two arrows. Success finally made them so bold that 
they destroyed all the store-houses connected with the fort, 
burned up the haystacks, killed the cows, and ruined all the 
property belonging to the garrison that was not within the 
range of their guns. The fort was literally besieged through 
the entire winter. f 

In February, the court met at Newtown, and ordered that 

* Trumbull, i. 57 5 Savage's Winthrop, i. 238. + Winthrop. 



[1637.] ENGLISH MUKDERED BY THE INDIANS. 51 

letters should be sent to the governor of Massachusetts, 
deprecating the evils resulting from Endicott's expedition, 
and calling on the governor for men to help prosecute the 
war with vigor. Soon after, Captain Mason was sent with 
twenty men to reinforce the garrison at Saybrook. 

Lieutenant Gardiner went out one day in March, with 
about a dozen men, to burn the marshes. The Indians lay 
in wait for him, as he passed a narrow neck of land, killed 
three of his men, and mortally wounded another. Gardiner 
himself was also wounded. They pursued him to the very 
walls of the fort, and, surrounding it in great numbers, 
mocked the fugitives, imitating the dying groans and prayers 
of the English whom they had taken captive and tortured, 
and challenging the garrison to leave the fort and come 
out and fight like men. They said they could kill English- 
men "all one flies." Nothing but grape shot could quiet 
them.* 

Soon after, the Pequots in canoes boarded a shallop as she 
was sailing down the river. She had three men on board. 
The Englishmen made a bold defence, but in vain. One of 
them was shot through the head with an arrow, and fell over- 
board. The Indians took the other two and killed them. 
They then split their bodies in twain, and suspended them all 
by their necks over the water, upon the branches of trees, 
hideous spectacles, to be gazed at by the English as they 
passed up and down the river. 

The Indians united the keenest sarcasm with a power 
of imitation and grimace unrivaled even among children. 
They would put on the clothes of Englishmen whom they 
had roasted alive, and present themselves in little bands on 
the lawn in front of the fort, where they would enact over 
again the horrible drama, kneeling down and praying with 
the fervent voice and agonized gestures of the sufferers, and 
utter lamentations and cries indicative of the most unspeaka- 
ble anguish. This theatrical entertainment was usually ended 
with insults offered to Gardiner in broken English, or with 

* Trumbull, i. 76. 



62 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

peals of demoniac laughter. Then they would take to their 
heels and run into the woods. 

About this time, Thomas Stanton, who could speak the 
Indian language so well that he often acted as interpreter for 
the colonies, arrived in a vessel at Saybrook. While waiting 
at the fort for a fair wind, a few Indians were seen to come 
down one day to a hill within musket range of the palisades, 
and hide themselves behind the trees. Gardiner oi"dered that 
the cannon should be pointed at the place where they lurked, 
and fired off when he waved his hat. Three of the savages 
soon rose and cautiously advanced towards the fort under 
pretense of a parley. Gardiner, willing, perhaps, to amuse 
his guest, walked out with him a little way, that they might 
come within speaking distance of the Indians. When the 
Englishmen had reached the stump of a large tree they 
stopped. " Who are you ?" asked the Indians. Stanton, 
replying to them in their own language, said, " That is the 
Lieutenant," and added that his own name was Thomas 
Stanton. The Indians replied, " It is false ; we saw the 
Lieutenant the other day shot full of arrows." But as soon 
as Gardiner spoke they saw their mistake, for one of the In- 
dians knew him well. They then cunningly asked, " Will 
you fight with the Nihanticks ? The Nihanticks are your 
friends, and we have come to trade with you." " We do 
not know one Indian from another," replied Stanton, " and 
we will trade with none of them." " Have you had fighting 
enough ?" asked the Indians. " We do not know that yet," 
returned the interpreter. " Is it your custom to kill women 
and children?" rejoined the other party to the dialogue. 
" That you shall see hereafter." 

A long pause ensued, when one of the Indians said, with a 
haughty air, " We are Pequots ; and have killed Englishmen, 
and can kill them as mosquitoes : and we will go to Connec- 
ticut, and kill men, women, and children, and carry away the 
horses, cows, and hogs." Gardiner then replied, with that 
good-natured irony so common with him, " No, no ; if you 
kill all the English there, it will do you no good. English 



[1637.] ATTACK UPON WETHERSFIELD. 53 

women are lazy, and can't do your work. The horses and 
cows will spoil your corn-fields. The hogs will root up your 
clam banks. You will be completely undone. But look here 
at our fort. Here are twenty pieces of trucking-cloth, and 
hoes, and hatchets ; you had better kill us and get these 
things, before you trouble yourselves to go up to Connec- 
ticut."* 

The Indians, enraged at this taunt, and unable to answer 
it, betook themselves to the thicket. They had scarcely 
reached it, when Gardiner gave the signal that was followed 
by a discharge of grape, that did the Indians little harm be- 
yond the fright that it gave them. 

In April, they went as far as Wethersfield, and waylaid the 
farmers as they went into the fields to labor. They killed six 
men and two women, and took captive two maidens, f who 
were long and anxiously sought after, and were finally safely 
restored to their friends by the Dutch. They owed their 
lives to the wife of Mononotto, a chief second only to Sas- 
sacus. She protected them with a faithfulness and delicacy, 
that were honorably requited when it came her turn to be a 
prisoner. At Wethersfield, also, they killed twenty cows, and 
destroyed other property to a large amount. 

Not long after, John Underbill, who had served under En- 
dicott in his attack upon the Pequots the year before, was 
sent from Massachusetts with twenty men, to reinforce the 
garrison at Say brook. When he reached the fort. Mason 
and his men returned to Hartford. 

With such an enemy hanging about the skirts of their 
three infant settlements — an enemy, growing every hour 
more daring and reckless — it was evident that some decisive 
steps must be taken at once. 

In the midst of these calamities the General Court met at 
Hartford, on the 1st of May, 1G37. This court represented 
the little republic of less than three hundred souls. An ex- 
cited session it was, and one fraught with doubts and teeming 

* Gardiner. Mass. Hist. Col. xxxiii. 144, 146; Mass. Hist. Col. xxxvi. 11. 
+ Mass. Hist. Col. viii. 132, new series ; Trumbull, i. 77. 




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56 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

his little fleet lay wind-bound near the fort, and within sight 
of the Pequot runners and spies who kept watch along the 
river. Mason's commission instructed him to sail directly 
for Pequot harbor, land his men there, and attack the 
enemy on their own ground. But the keen soldier saw at a 
glance the peril of obeying such orders. Had he not been 
kept so long at Saybrook, the case might have been different. 
But eight days had elapsed since he set sail from Hartford, 
and he well knew that a Pequot runner, could carry the news 
from the mouth of the Connecticut to that of the Thames 
in an hour, and that the shore would be lined with savages 
to meet them on their arrival. Besides, the shore was wild 
and rough, with rocks and trees that afforded a safe screen to 
the Indians. He also knew from the poor girls who had been 
taken captive at Wethersfield, and who had just been brought 
safely back to Saybrook by the Dutch, that the Pequots had 
sixteen guns in their possession, and had learned how to use 
them. The Pequot warriors, too, he was aware, many times 
outnumbered his own, and were swift of foot, and having the 
advantage of a favorable position on land, could offer a for- 
midable opposition to the English, who were more slow in 
their movements. The Pequots, too, could choose their 
ground, as their harbor was the only place within many miles 
where the English could land. Lastly, he saw, that if he 
could fall upon the enemy in the rear, and when they were 
not prepared for an attack, they would fall an easy prey into 
his hands. 

Mason summoned a council of war, and assigned boldly 
these reasons, among others, why it was necessary to depart 
from the letter of the commission, and land at some other 
point than the one named in it. He said, in such an emer- 
gency, their necessities must be their masters. He urged the 
propriety of sailing past the Pequot country, as far as Narra- 
gansett bay, and, there landing his army, march through the 
Narragansett country, under the protection of the old here- 
ditary enemies of the Pequots, steal upon them in the night 
and crush them. 



[1637.] THE CHAPLAIN CONSULTED. 57 

This advice, backed as it was by such cogent reasoning, the 
other members of the council did not dare to second. The 
grim authority of the court haunted their minds hke a spec- 
tre. They were law-abiding men. How should they dare 
traverse the written will of the republic ? They saw the 
overwhelming force of Mason's arguments — they foresaw the 
death that awaited them, if they pursued the line marked out 
by the commission, yet those iron-hearted men, in the strong 
language of Mason, " were at a stand, and could not judge it 
meet to sail to Narragansett." What was to be done ? A 
breeze might spring up at any moment, and then they must 
set sail. They had clearly no time to waste in debate. At 
last Mason remembers that these men, though they honor the 
authority of written laws, do so only because those laws are 
supposed to express the will of God. Is not Mr. Stone, one 
of the chosen servants of God, on board one of his vessels ? 
What so fitting as to consult the chaplain? 

Accordingly, Mason had an interview with Mr. Stone, 
and begged him " to commend their condition to the Lord 
that night," and ask advice of him. 

The next morning, the chaplain came ashore, and told Cap- 
tain Mason "he had done as he had desired, and was fully satis- 
fied to sail for Narragansett." The council was again called, 
the case again stated, and with one consent they agreed to 
sail for Narragansett bay.* It was on Friday morning that 
they set sail, and arrived in port on Saturday evening. But 
the wind blew with such violence from the north-west, that 
they could not effect a landing until Tuesday at sunset ; at 
which time Captain Mason landed and marched up to the resi- 
dence of Miantinomoh, the chief sachem of the Narragan- 
setts. Mason told the sachem, that he had not an opportu- 
nity to acquaint him beforehand of his coming armed into 
his country ; yet he doubted not the object would be approved 
by him, as the English had come to avenge the wrongs and 
injuries they had received from the common enemy, the 
Pequots. Miantinomoh expressed himself pleased with the 



* JNIasou's Narrative. 



58 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

design of Mason, but thought his numbers were too few to 
deal with the enemy, who were, as he said, " very great cap- 
tains, and men skillful in war."* 

During the night, an Indian runner came into the camp 
with a letter from Captain Patrick, who had been sent from 
Massachusetts with a small body of men to assist Connecti- 
cut in prosecuting the war, informing Mason that he had 
reached Pi'ovidence with the Massachusetts forces, and beg- 
ging him to remain where he was until they could unite. 
But the Connecticut troops were worn with fatigue and im- 
patient to return home ; and it was finally resolved that they 
would not wait for their Massachusetts allies, but would 
march for the Pequot country the next morning. The Nar- 
ragansett Indians entertained such a dread of the Pequots 
that they could not believe the English to be in earnest. 

It was on Wednesday, the 24th of May, that the little army 
of seventy-seven Englishmen, sixty Mohegans and Connec- 
ticut river Indians, and about two hundred Narragansetts. 
began their march for the Pequot forts. They went that day 
about twenty miles, when they reached the eastern Nihantick, 
a country that bordered on the Pequot territory. Here was 
the seat of one of the Narragansett sachems, and here he 
had a fort. But he refused to treat with the English, or let 
them enter his palisades to pass the night. Mason, having 
good cause to think from their behavior, that these Indians 
were in league with the Pequots, set a strong guard about 
their fort, and would not allow one of them to escape from it 
during the night. f But the conduct of the Nihanticks, was 
attributable to suspicion and fear, rather than to any alliance 
with the Pequots, as the event proved ; for when they saw, 
the next morning, that the English were reinforced by a large 
party of Narragansetts, sent on by Miantinomoh, they took 
heart, and, forming a circle, declared that they, too, would 
fight the Pequots, and boasted with their usual bravado how 
many they would kill ; so that when Mason resumed his 
march on Thursday, he had about five hundred Indian war- 

* Mason's Narrative. + lb. 



[1637.] MARCH TOWARD MISTICK. 59 

riors in his train. The day was very sultry and oppressive, 
and some of the men fainted from heat, and the exhaustion 
that followed from a want of suitable provisions. After 
marching about twelve miles to a ford in the Pawcatuck river, 
the old fishing-ground of the Pequots,* the army made a halt 
and rested a while. The Narragansett Indians, had, from the 
first arrival of Mason among them, looked with ill-concealed 
contempt upon the scanty numbers and supposed weakness 
of the English. They had more than once hinted that Mason 
and his men had not the courage to fight the Pequots, and 
that whatever skill and firmness there was in the army, was 
confined to their own ranks. But, now that they had come 
into the country of Sassacus, and found that they were 
within a few miles of his principal fortress, the expedition 
seemed no longer to be a pleasant jest to them, but an earn- 
est reality, that grew more and more fearful with every step 
that lessened the distance between them and the chief, who 
was more terrible to their imaginations than Hobbomocko 
himself Mason at last called Uncas to him, and asked him 
what he had to expect from the Indians. The chief replied, 
that the Narragansetts would all drop off, but that he and his 
Mohegans would never leave the English. " For which ex- 
pression and some other speeches of his," says Mason, "I 
shall never forget him." 

After dining upon such coarse fare as was to be had, they 
marched about three miles to a field just planted with Indian 
corn. Here they made another halt and held a council, for 
it was thought that they drew near the enemy. The Indians 
now told them, for the first time, that the Pequots had two 
forts, and that they were "almost" impregnable. Nothing 
daunted by this intelligence, the council resolved to attack 
both these fortresses at once. But, on further inquiry, it ap- 
peared that the principal fort, where Sassacus resided, was too 
remote to be reached before midnight, so they were com- 
pelled to abandon this plan, and attack the smaller one at 
Mistick. 

* Johnson's Wonder-Working Providence, Mass. Hist. Coll. xxiv, p. 47. 



60 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

The prediction of Uncas, with regard to the Narragan- 
setts, was soon verified. Indeed, all the Indians, who had at 
first marched in the van, fell into the rear ; and soon not a 
Narragansett was to be seen. Wequash, a petty chief who 
had revolted from Sassacus, was the guide upon whom Mason 
most relied, and he proved worthy of trust. They marched 
on in silence until about an hour after sunset, when they 
reached a small swamp between two hills. Here, supposing 
that they were near the fort, " they pitched their little camp" 
between two high rocks, ever since known as " Porter's 
Rocks." It was a clear night, with a shining moon. Mason 
set his guards, and stationed his sentinels at a great distance 
from the camp, to prevent the possibility of a surprise. Then 
the tired soldiers, with no tents to shelter them from the dew, 
laid themselves down under the open sky and slept. " The 
rocks were our pillows," says the heroic leader of the expe- 
dition, " yet rest was pleasant." Mistick fort was farther 
off from the camp than they had been led to suppose. It was 
so near, however, that the sentries heard the enemy singing 
there till midnight, a wild strain of joy and exultation, they 
afterwards found it to have been, in commemoration of the 
supposed flight of Mason and his men — for they had watched 
their vessels a few days before, when they sailed eastward, 
and rationally enough concluded that they dared not meet 
the dreaded Pequot in battle. This night of festivity was 
their last. 

About two hours before day, the men were roused up and 
commanded to make themselves ready for battle. The moon 
still shone full in their faces as they were summoned to prayer. 
They now set forward with alacrity. The fort proved to be 
about two miles off. A long way it seemed over the level 
though stony ground, and the officers began at last to fear 
that they had been led upon the wrong track, when they 
came at length to a second field of corn, newly planted, at 
the base of a high hill. Here they halted, and " gave the 
word for some of the Indians to come up." At first not an 
Indian was to be seen ; but finally, Uncas and Wequash the 



[1637.] ATTACK UPOX MISTICK FORT. 61 

guide showed themselves. " Where is the fort ?" demanded 
Mason. " On the top of that hill," was the answer. " Where 
are the rest of the Indians ?" asked the fearless soldier. 
The answer was, what he probably anticipated, " Behind, 
and very much afraid." " Tell them," said Mason, "not to 
fly, but to stand as far off as they please, and see whether 
Englishmen will fight." 

There were two entrances to the fort, one on the north- 
eastern side, the other on the west. It was decided that 
Mason should lead on and force open the former, while Un- 
derbill, who brought up the rear, was to pass around and go 
in at the western gate. 

Mason had approached within about a rod of the fort, when 
he heard a dog bark, and almost in a breath, this alarm was 
followed up by the voice of an Indian, crying, " Owanux ! 
Owanux!" — Englishmen, Englishmen! No time was to be 
lost. He called up his forces with all haste, and fired upon 
the enemy through the palisades. The Pequots, who had 
spent the night in singing and dancing, were now in a deep 
sleep. The entrance near which Mason stood, was blocked 
up with bushes about breast high. Over this frail obstruction 
he leaped, sword in hand, shouting to his men to follow him. 
But Seely, his lieutenant, found it more easy to remove the 
bushes than to force the men over them. When he had done 
so, he also entered, followed by sixteen soldiers. It had been 
determined to destroy the enemy with the sword, and thus 
save the corn and other valuables that were stored in the 
wigwams. With this view, the captain, seeing no Indians, 
entered one of these wigwams. Here he found many warri- 
ors who crowded hard upon him, and beset him with great 
violence ; but they were so amazed at the strange apparition 
that had so suddenly thrust itself upon them, that they could 
make but a feeble resistance. Mason was soon joined by 
William Hayden, who, as he entered the wigwam through 
the breach that had been made by his impetuous captain, 
stumbled against the dead body of a Pequot, whom Mason 
had slain, and fell. Some of the Indians now fled from the 



62 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

wigwam ; others, still stupefied with sleep, crept under mats 
and skins to hide themselves. 

The palisades embraced an area of about twenty acres — a 
space sufficient to afford room for a large Indian village. 
There were more than seventy houses in this space, with 
lanes or streets passing between them. Mason, still intent 
on destroying the Pequots, and at the same time saving their 
property, now left the wigwam, and passed down one of these 
streets, driving the crowd of Indians that thronged it before 
him from one end of it to the other. At the lower extremity 
of this lane stood a little company of Englishmen, who, 
having effected an entrance from the west, met the Indians 
as they fled from Mason, and killed about half a dozen of them. 
The captain now faced about, and went back the whole 
length of the lane, to the spot where he had entered the fort. 
He was exhausted, and quite out of breath, and had become 
satisfied that this was not the way to exterminate the Indians, 
who now swarmed from the wigwams like bees from a hive. 
Two of his soldiers stood near him, close to the palisades, 
with their useless swords pointed to the ground. Their 
dejected faces told him that they felt as he did, that the task 
was a hopeless one. " We shall never kill them in this way," 
said the captain ; and then added, with the same laconic brevity, 
" We must burn them !" With these words the decree of the 
council of war to save the booty of the enemy was annulled ; 
for, stepping into the wigwam where he had before forced an 
entrance, he snatched a fire-brand in his hand, and instantly 
returning, applied it to the light mats that formed the cov- 
ering of their rude tenements. Almost in an instant, the 
little village was wrapped in flames, and the frightened 
Pequots fled in dismay from the roofs that had just before 
sheltered them. Such was their terror, that many of them 
took refuge from the English in the flames, and perished there. 
Some climbed the palisades, where they afforded but too fair 
a mark for the muskets of their enemies, who could see to take 
a dead aim in the light of the ghastly conflagration. Others 
fled from the beds of mats or skins, where they had sought a 



[1637.] mason's victory. 63 

temporary concealment, and were arrested by the hand of 
death in the midst of their flight. Others, still, warping up to 
the windward, whence the fire sped with such fatal velocity, fell 
flat upon the ground and plied their destroyers with arrows. 
But their hands were so palsied with fear, that the feathered 
messengers either flew wide of their aim or fell with spent 
force upon the ground. A few, of still stouter heart, rushed 
forth with the tomahawk, to engage the invaders of their 
homes in a hand to hand combat. But they were nearly all, 
to the number of about forty, cut in pieces by the sword. 
The vast volume of flame, the lurid light reflected on the dark 
background of the horizon, the crack of the muskets, the 
yell of the Indians who fought, and of those who sought vainly 
to fly, the wail of women and children as they writhed in the 
flames, and the exulting cries of the Narragansetts and Mohe- 
gans without the fort, formed a contrast awful and sublime, 
with the quiet glories of the peaceful May morning, that was 
just then breaking over the woods and the ocean. 

Seventy wigwams were burned to ashes, and probably 
not less than five hundred men, women, and children were 
destroyed.* The property, too, shai-ed the same fate. The 
long-cherished wampum-belt, with the beads of blue, purple, 
and white, the war-club, the eagle plume, the tufted scalps, 
trophies of many a victory — helped only to swell the blaze 
that consumed aUke the young warrior and the superannuated 
counselor, the squaw, and the little child that clung helplessly 
to her bosom. Of all who were in the fort, only seven were 
taken captive, and about the same number escaped. 

Notwithstanding their victory, the English forces were in 
no very enviable situation. Two of their men lay dead on 
the field, and about twenty had been wounded. The surgeon 
had been left at Narragansett bay with the vessels, and by 

* As to the number of the Pequots who perished on that memorable morning, 
authorities widely differ. Mason, the chief actor in the transaction, (whose narra- 
tive of the expedition we have generally followed,) says " six or seven hundred as 
some of them confessed ;" Wintiirop puts the number at about three hundred. 
Brodhead, at six hundred. Triunbull, at five or six hundred. Underbill, at 
four hundred, &e. 



64 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

some misunderstanding had not arrived to attend upon such 
as needed his services. Nearly all the provisions, and other 
comforts required by men exhausted and wounded, were also 
on board the vessels. Without provisions, one quarter of his 
men disabled, in the midst of a country unknown to him, but 
familiar to his enemies, within a short distance of the fort of 
Sassacus, who had around him hundreds of fierce warriors, 
his ships far away, and his powder and ball almost spent, 
Mason found much to test the skill of a leader, and to call 
forth his courage. 

While debating what measures should be adopted, it was 
with delight that he saw his little vessels, their sails filled with 
the welcome gale that blew from the north-east, gliding into 
Pequot harbor. The fainting soldiers hailed them with joy, 
as if they had been angels sent to deliver them. 

By this time, the news of the destruction that had fallen 
upon his tribe at Mistick, heralded, no doubt, not only by the 
handful of men who had escaped from the fort, and by the 
clouds of smoke that floated from the fatal scene, but by the 
dismal cries that attended this exterminating sacrifice, had 
reached the fort of Sassacus, and three hundred warriors 
came rushing towards the English with the determination to 
avenge themselves for an injury not yet half revealed to them. 
Mason led out a file of his best marksmen, who soon gave 
the Pequots a check. Seeing that they could not stand his 
fire, he commenced his march toward Pequot harbor. Of 
the twenty wounded men, four or five were so disabled that 
it was necessary to employ about twenty other men to carry 
them ; so that he had but about forty men who could engage 
in battle, until he succeeded in hiring some Indians to take 
charge of the wounded. They had marched about a quarter 
of a mile, when the Pequot warriors, who had withdrawn out 
of the range of their muskets, reached the spot where, not 
two hours before, their fort had sheltered so much that was 
sacred to them. When they came to the top of the hill, ven- 
erable to them from so many associations connected with the 
history and glory of their tribe — when they saw the smoking 



[1637.] MASON RETURNS TO HARTFORD. 65 

palisades, the flames of their wigwams, not yet extinguished, 
the blackened bodies that lay scattered where death had 
overtaken them — in their grief and rage, they stamped upon 
the ground, tore the hair from their heads, and then rushed 
madly down the hill, as if they would have swept the enemy 
from the face of the earth. Captain Underbill, with a file of 
the bravest men, was ordered to defend the rear. This he 
did with such efficiency that the Indians were soon com- 
pelled to fall back. Yet such was their resolve to have their 
revenge upon the English that, during their march for the 
next six miles, they pursued them, sometimes hanging on 
their rear, sometimes hidden behind trees or rocks in front, 
discharging their arrows in secret, at others, making desper- 
ate attacks, that could be repelled only by the too deadly use 
of the musket. They fought at fearful odds, as was evinced 
by the dead bodies of their warriors picked up by the Mohe- 
gans who followed in their train, while not an Englishman 
was injured during the whole line of their march. At last, 
wearied with a pursuit that only brought harm to themselves, 
they abandoned it, and left the English to continue their 
march unmolested, with their colors flying, to Pequot harbor. 
Here they were received on board their vessels with many 
demonstrations of joy. 

In about three weeks from the day when the army em- 
barked at Hartford, to go upon this uncertain and dangerous 
enterprise, they returned to their homes, where the kindest 
congratulations awaited them. 

5 



^' 



CHAPTER III. 



PROSECUTION OF THE PEQUOT WAE. 



The Pequots, who had gone out to view the scene of the 
fatal conflagration at Mistick, and who had sought in vain to 
avenge it upon the heads of its authors, now returned to the 
principal fort, and told to Sassacus the details of the dismal 
story, as they had been able to gather it from the too certain 
indications that still remained. Their reverence for him, no 
longer kept them aloof from him. From having been his 
most abject servants, they now became his accusers. They 
charged it upon his arrogance and ambition, that his subjects 
had revolted and had called in to aid their rebellion, such ter- 
rible allies as the English were, with weapons that resembled 
the thunder and the lightning, who went upon the sea, and 
who made use of fire to execute their wrath. They said the 
ruin of the whole tribe would soon follow. They said that 
he merited death, and they would kill him. Indeed, it is 
probable that they would have done so, had not the counselors 
of the chief interposed with mild words to calm the excited 
passions of the warriors. They consented to spare his life, 
but the spell of his influence over them was broken forever. 
He had ceased to be " all one god," from the moment that it 
became known how inadequate he was to protect his people 
from the English. A consultation was now held of the most 
solemn character. What should be done ? Should they 
remain in the fort, and be exposed to the fate that had awaited 
their brothers at Mistick, or should they imitate the example 
of their enemies, and commit this their old retreat, and its 
royal wigwams and high palisades, to the flames, and then 
seek the fastnesses of the rocks and cedar swamps for a last 
refuge ? It was with a bitter struggle that they finally re- 
solved to burn the fort, and thus help to blot out the Pequot 
name. They burned it to- ashes with their own hands, and, 



[1637.] MASON FOLLOWS SASSACUS. 67 

in little companies, as they could best agree to assort them- 
selves, they fled into the most inaccessible hiding-places. 
Sassacus, Mononotto, and about eighty of his friends and 
braves, making up the proudest of the tribe, who preferred to 
die rather than desert their chief in his misfortune, set their 
faces toward the west, and fled for their lives. 

Meanwhile Roger Williams, always the good angel of those 
who persecuted him, sent an Indian runner to Boston with 
the tidings that Connecticut had gained a victory over the 
Pequots at Mistick. 

The governor and council of the Massachusetts, resolved to 
follow up Mason's success, sent forward with all haste one hun- 
dred and twenty men, under the command of Mr. Stoughton, 
with instructions to prosecute the war, even to the destruction 
of the Pequot name. The famous Mr. Wilson of Boston went 
with the army as chaplain. They reached Pequot harbor 
late in June, and soon found a party of the Indians, where 
they had secreted themselves in a swamp. They took eighty 
captives there — fifty women and children, whom they spared, 
and thirty men, every one of whom they killed with the ex- 
ception of the sachems, whom they saved on their promising 
to conduct them to Sassacus. 

In June, the Connecticut court met at Hartford, and 
ordered that forty men should be raised, and put under the 
command of Mason, to carry on the war.* The wise Ludlow, 
and several of the principal gentlemen of the colony, went 
along with the party as advisers, for by this time the court 
had learned the folly of tying up Mason by the terms of a 
commission. They soon joined the Massachusetts men, under 
Stoughton, at Pequot harbor. A council of war was held, 
and it was resolved to follow Sassacus in his flight toward 
Hudson river. They soon found traces of the enemy. It 
was evident from the close proximity to on - another of the 
rendezvous, where the Pequots spent the night, that they 
marched at a slow pace, and had their women, children, and 
movable property with them. The smoke that arose from 

* J. H. Trumbull's Colonial Records, i. 10, 



68 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

their fires, the prints of their fingers in the woods, where they 
had dug up the earth to search for roots to quell the cravings 
of hunger, and the marks that the tides had not obliterated 
where they had searched for clams in the wet sea sand, render- 
ed it no difficult task to pursue them. But the Pequots were 
scattered into so many parties, that it was impossible for the 
English to tell from these doubtful signs whether they were 
on the trail of Sassacus or of some petty chief At last, in 
this perplexity, they summoned the sachems taken by Stough- 
ton at Pequot harbor, who had been spared under the prom- 
ise of pointing out the trail of the great chief, and called upon 
them to redeem their pledge. But they refused to give in- 
formation against him, and were put to death.* The place 
where this too summary execution took place was within the 
limits of the present town of Guilford, where the land, rising 
into a bluff", affords a grateful elevation for the sea-breezes 
that have long tempted the lovei's of cool summer nights 
and good cheer to take up a temporary abode. It still bears 
the name of " Sachem's Head." A part of the army, guided 
by Uncas and some of his Indians, marched along the shore 
within sight of the vessels, that hovered as near them as the 
nature of the coast would allow. When they reached Quin- 
nipiack, now New Haven, they saw a great smoke curling 
up through the trees, and hoped to find the fugitives near at 
hand. But the fires, they soon found, had been kindled by 
the Connecticut river Indians. 

Here was a good harbor, and as the march through the 
woods had proved toilsome, and had resulted in nothing, the 
English all went on board the vessels. Here they stayed 
-several days, in doubt what they would do, and waiting for 
the return of a Pequot, who had been sent forward to spy 
out the enemy. At last he returned, and reported that Sas- 

* Drake, in his History of Boston, p. 216, names Mononotto as one of the sa- 
chems beheaded at this time. Trumbull, however, mentions him as one of the 
survivors of the " swamp fight," which took place several days after ; adding, that 
he was one of the twenty who fled to the Mohawks, all of whom were slain by the 
Mohawks, " except Mononotto, who was wounded, but made his escape." 



[1637.] THE SWAMP FIGHT. 69 

sacus and his party, were secreted in a swamp a few miles 
to the westward. 

The English were soon on the trail. They found the 
swamp without difficulty. It was situated within the limits 
of the old town of Fairfield. In this swamp were hidden 
about eighty Pequot warriors, with their women and children, 
and about two hundred other Indians. A dismal, miry bog 
it was, covered with tangled bushes. Dangerous as it was, 
Lieutenant Davenport rushed into it with his men, eager to 
encounter the Pequots. 

The sharp arrows of the enemy flew from places that hid 
the archers, wounding the soldiers who, in their haste to retreat, 
only sunk deeper in the mire. The Indians, made bold by 
this adventure, pressed hard upon them, and would have car- 
ried off" their scalps, had it not been for the timely aid of some 
other Englishmen, who waded into the swamp, sword in hand, 
drove back the Pequots, and drew their disabled friends from 
the mud that had threatened to swallow them up. The 
swamp was now surrounded, and a skirmish followed that 
proved so destructive to the savages, that the Fairfield Indi- 
ans begged for quarter. They said, what was probably true, 
that they were there only by accident, and had never done 
the English any harm — and that they only wished for the 
privilege of withdrawing from the swamp, and leaving the 
Pequots to fight it out. 

Thomas Stanton, who knew their language, was sent into 
the swamp with instructions to oflTer life to all the Indians 
who had shed no English blood. When the Sachem of the 
Fairfield Indians learned the terms proposed by Stanton, he 
came out of the swamp followed by little parties of men, wo- 
men, and children. He and his Indians, he said, had shed no 
English blood. But the Pequot warriors, made up of choice 
men, and burning with rage against the enemy who had 
destroyed their tribe and driven them from their old haunts, 
fought with such desperate bravery, that the English were 
glad to confine themselves to the border of the swamp. 

There now sprang up a controversy among the officers, 



70 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

as to the best mode of annihilating this Httle handful of 
Pequots. Some advised that they should plunge into the 
swamp, and there fight them. But the experiment of Daven- 
port discouraged others from so foolhardy a course. Others 
suggested that they should cut down the swamp with the 
hatchets that they had brought with them ; others, that they 
should surround it with palisades. Neither of these proposi- 
tions was adopted. They finally hit upon a plan that was 
more easily executed. They cut down the bushes that grew 
upon a little neck of firm upland, that almost divided the 
swamp into two parts. In this way, they so lessened the area 
occupied by the Pequots that, by stationing men twelve feet 
apart, it could all be surrounded by the troops. This was 
done, and the sentinels all stationed, before nightfall. Thus 
keeping watch on the borders of the morass, wet, cold, and 
weary, the soldiers passed the night under arms. Just before 
day, a dense fog arose, that shrouded them in almost total 
darkness, A friendly mist it proved to the Pequots, for it 
doubtless saved the lives of many of them. At a favorable 
moment they rushed upon the English. Captain Patrick's 
quarters were first attacked, but he drove them back more 
than once. Their yells, more terrible from the darkness that 
engulfed the scene of the conflict, were so unearthly and 
appalling, the attack was so sudden and so well sustained, 
that, but for the timely interference of a party sent by Mason 
to relieve him, Patrick would doubtless have been driven 
from his station or cut in pieces. The siege had by this time 
given place to a hand-to-hand fight. As Mason was himself 
marching up to aid Patrick, the Pequots rushed upon him 
from the thicket. He drove them back with severe loss. 
They did not resume the attack upon the man who had re- 
cently given them such fearful proofs of his prowess ; but 
turned upon Patrick, broke through his ranks, and fled. About 
sixty of the Pequot warriors escaped. Twenty lay dead upon 
the field. One hundred and eighty were taken prisoners. 
Most of the property that this fugitive remnant of the tribe 
had attempted to carry with them, fell into the hands of the 



[1637.] SASSACUS BEHEADED BY THE MOHAWKS. 71 

English. Hatchets of stone, beautiful wampum-belts, pol- 
ished bows, and feathered arrows, with the utensils employed 
by the women in their rude domestic labors, became at once, 
as did the women themselves, the property of the conquerors. 
The captives and the booty were divided between Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut. Some were sent by Massachu- 
setts to the West Indies, and there, as slaves, dragged out a 
wretched, yet brief existence. Among the captives taken in 
this battle, was the wife of Mononotto and her children. 
With much dignity, she begged them to save her honor in- 
violate and to spare her life and that of her offspring. She 
had been kind to the girls who had been taken from Weth- 
ersfield, and for this she and her little ones were recommended, 
not in vain, to the mercy of the governor of Massachusetts.* 

Those who fell to the colony of Connecticut found their 
condition more tolerable. Some of them, it is true, spent 
their days in servitude ; yet its rigors softened as the horrors 
of the war faded from the recollections of the English. Sas- 
sacus seems not to have been present at this battle. Foiled 
and discomfitted at every turn, he fled far to the westward, 
and sought a refuge among the enemies of his tribe, the Mo- 
hawks. But he looked in vain for protection at their hands. 
He had defied them in his prosperity, and in his evil days 
they avenged themselves. They beheaded him, and sent his 
scalp as a trophy to Connecticut. A lock of his black, glossy 
hair was carried to Boston in the fall of the same year, as a 
witness that the proud sachem of the Pequots was no more ! 

On the 21st of September, Uncas and Miantinomoh, with 
the remaining Pequots, met the magistrates of Connecticut 
at Hartford. About two hundred of the vanquished tribe 
still survived. A treaty was then entered into between Con- 
necticut, the Mohegans, and the Narragansetts. By its terms, 
there was to be perpetual peace between these two tribes and 

* The scene of this famous " swamp fight " lies on the borders of Long Island 
sound, about three miles from Greenfield Hill, in the town of Fairfield. President 
Dwight, (who celebrated the battle in his poem, " Greenfield Hill,") states, in the 
preface of that work, that the " swamp " was at that time a beautiful field. 



72 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

the English. If the subjects of either tribe did wrong to 
those of the other, the injured party promised not to take 
summary justice into its own hands, but to appeal to the 
English. Then, with imposing ceremonials, the magistrates 
divided the remnant of the Pequots among the Narragansetts 
and Mohegans. To Uncas, their favorite, they gave one 
hundred, to Miantinomoh eighty, and twenty to Ninigret. 
These poor creatures, thus given over to their enemies and 
subjected to their bitterest taunts, were to be called Pequots 
no more, nor were they ever to dwell again in their old 
haunts, or pay their wonted visits to the burial-places of their 
dead, or meet on festal days to revive the traditions of their 
people around the embers of the council fire. 

The thoughtful reader may feel disposed to ask us, if we 
can justify the story that we have told with such painful 
minuteness. We answer, that such a war should never have 
been begun. The expedition ot Endicott, the primary cause 
of this war, was ill advised, and carried on in defiance of the 
wishes of Connecticut. But, after the horrid murders that 
were committed by the Pequots, the sequel of this unhappy 
affair, Connecticut was compelled to take the field. The war 
was then one of extermination, for the enraged Pequot would 
give no quarter to the English. Some lineaments of the cam- 
paign are harsh and repulsive. Most gladly would we soften 
them with more delicate tints. But the features of truth have 
often a sharp, stern outline, as had the characters of those 
unflinching men, the fathers of New England, who struck 
down their enemies as they felled their forest trees, aiming 
at every blow of the axe at the annihilation of the wilder- 
ness. The roots of the brave old woods they could not at 
once destroy. A few years sent up a new growth, with 
fresh leaves, to wave in the breath of summer, and ripen 
beneath the August sun. But no new race of men sprung 
up to fill the places of the crushed and desolate Pequots. Let 
the reader decide the question of guilt or innocence as best 
he may ; but let him not forget to weigh against the fate of 
the Indians the atrocities that they had perpetrated, and the 



[1637.] CLOSE OF THE PEQUOT WAR. 73 

horror inspired by their war whoops as they mingled at night 
with the howl of the wolf around the farmer's dwelling. Let 
him also bear in mind how much the last two centuries have 
done to modify the rules of war and the social and political 
relations of the world. In this way he will be able to adjust 
the scales between the contending parties, in a struggle not 
so much for dominion as for a national existence. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE FIRST AMERICAN CONSTITUTION. 



Civil liberty, as Christian nations understand the term, 
seems to have had its seeds first sown with a Kberal hand in 
England. But England, with all her health and vigor, bor- 
rowed from the feudalism of the continent, during the early 
and middle ages, many a constitutional taint, that showed it- 
self in the blood of the state, and sometimes threatened it 
with a speedy dissolution. The struggle between the villein 
and his lord — the oppressive power of the great barons — 
their disregard of the interests of the lower orders — their 
bloody wars, waged to make and unmake kings — kept her in 
a state of almost perpetual unrest for centuries. There, too, 
the religious sentiment, long meditating the mild studies of 
the scholar and the doctrines of the Prince of Peace, in the 
depths of the cloister, was roused by the blast of the clarion 
to follow the wildest of priests and the most romantic of 
kings to the wars of the Holy Sepulchre, and often kindled 
to acts of violence at home that have left marks still visible 
in every part of the island. 

But, by slow degrees, often repulsed, and still gathering its 
forces anew, popular constitutional liberty gained ground. 
By a union of the people with the crown, the barons were 
subdued, and the kingly prerogative itself was at length con- 
fined to fixed channels. Sometimes, indeed, swollen by the 
strong passions of some imperious monarch like Henry VIII., 
it broke over its banks, and spread a temporary desolation 
among the people ; but the waters soon subsided into their 
calm and regular flow. But Henry VIII. was an exception 
to all rules. It is not often that a nation is governed by a 
monarch of such scholastic attainments, such intellectual en- 
dowments, such a strong and marked individuality, and such 



HENRY VIII. 75 

an imperious will. Never did a prince come to the throne 
with more flattering anticipations. A handsome person, a 
bold and gallant manner, a full exchequer, an undoubted title, 
all contributed to swell the popular shouts that hailed him 
king. With all these advantages, Henry was almost totally 
devoid of moral culture. He was also the victim of the most 
insatiate passions. It is idle to call him a Protestant, in any 
such sense as the term was understood in his day, or in that 
of his daughter Elizabeth. So far was he from being so, that 
he himself wrote what he called a refutation of Luther's 
tenets, in Latin, for which he was honored by Leo X. with 
the title of "Defender of the Faith." Nor is there any reason 
to suppose that he would have ever broken away from the 
Roman see, had he not been enraged at the excommunication 
that followed a public disclosure of his secret marriage with 
Anne Boleyn. All that he then did was to declare himself 
the " Head of the English Church." Still he adhered as 
closely as ever to the theological tenets of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church. He executed Sir Thomas More and Bishop 
Fisher, because they refused to take the oath of supremacy 
to him, and at the same time caused hundreds of reformers 
to be burned at the stake. The cruel and barbarous 
destruction of the religious houses, and the confiscation of 
monastic property, in 1538, the expunging of the sainted 
name of Thomas a Becket, from the calendar, and the burn- 
ing of his bones to ashes, were acts of violence leveled not 
against the Roman Catholic religion, but against those who 
dared to dispute his own ecclesiastical supremacy. His alli- 
ance with Catherine Howard brought him still more imme- 
diately under the control of the Catholic party, and while the 
new queen retained his favor a fearful persecution was waged 
against the Protestants. 

If he ever was a Protestant, it was while under the brief 
dominion of Catherine Parr, his sixth wife, whose heart was 
touched, though she dared not openly avow it, with the dawn- 
ing beams of the Reformation. Even this secretly-cherished 
preference had well-nigh proved her ruin. That the king 



76 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

afterwards forsook his old friends, does not evince, that I am 
able to discover, any change in his religious tenets. 

All this v\^hile, the quick leaven of the Reformation was 
working in the minds of the English people. While the 
monarch was busy in freeing himself from the burden of one 
queen, only to become entangled in the toils of another, 
whose glory, alas, was to be equally evanescent ; while he was 
writing that darling word " supremacy," in characters red 
with the blood of bishops and statesmen adhering to their 
old allegiance, mingled, too, with that of reformers, whose 
pure souls were breathed forth in prayer, that the sickle 
might quickly be thrust in by other hands, since to them it 
was denied to reap the whitened harvest field — all this while, 
a large portion of his subjects, in the words of an English 
writer second to none, were "casting off the rags of their 
old vices," and were reading the Bible diligently to find the 
spirit and the form of the primitive church ; the spirit first, 
after that the form ; the weightier matters of the law, after 
these, tithes of mint and cummin. By this party I mean not 
the Puritans alone, but rather the Reformation party, embrac- 
ing the high-born and the lowly of every rank and name, who 
dared for themselves to search the Scriptures, and apply to 
the exposition of them the light of conscience and reason. 
This party was never able to make head against the self- 
willed monarch, but it grew in secret, and waited for his 
death with such patience as a fiery zeal is able to command. 

With his death, this large party, made up of those who 
afterwards fell in with the established order of things under 
Edward VI., as well as of the Puritans, who fled from the 
pursuit of bloody Mary into Germany and Switzerland, dared 
to assert its claims to royal notice, and those claims were 
for a brief space in part allowed. During the mild reign 
of Edward much was accomplished. Articles of faith were 
compiled, that in later years served as the basis of a more 
complete and perfect system*. In this reign, too, Cranmer 
and Ridley were associated with other divines to frame a 
liturgy, not in Latin, but in the vernacular tongue. The first 



QUEEN ELIZABETH. 77 

part of the homilies also, boldly setting forth the doctrines 
of Christianity, and defining with more certainty the then 
unsettled landmarks of the Protestant faith, were published 
under the same monarch. 

But the mild reign of Edward and the fierce persecutions 
of Mary soon passed away. On the accession of Elizabeth 
to the throne, this large liberal party, that I have called the 
Reformation party, became severed, never to be united again. 
The queen, retaining in her mind too keen a remembrance 
of her own dangers and sufferings during her father's and 
sister's reign, ever to commit herself cordially to the arms 
of the Roman Catholic Church, yet wedded by the very state- 
liness of her character to its venerable forms of prayer, its 
lofty chants, its respect paid to externals, and the hold that 
it had upon the imagination, dating as it did from a remote 
antiquity, was ready to adopt some middle ground between 
the two extremes of the national mind — some safe ground 
where the more conservative elements of the state might 
blend themselves with the loyalty still inherent in the hearts 
of the lower orders — some sacred ground, fit for a shrine, 
where the sentiment of religion and that of patriotism 
might dwell together under the protecting shadow of the 
throne. 

Where was this ground of union ? The queen was proud — 
for when was pride absent from the house of Tudor ? Yet 
in her, the loftiest pride was united with that sturdy sense, 
that keen, intuitive vision, that characterized her noble family, 
and enabled them to measure the English people, and juda:e 
with such accuracy how far they might push the royal pre- 
rogative, and note the line of foam that marked the danger- 
ous proximity of popular breakers. Besides, stern as she was, 
she was not deaf to the voice of those softer monitions that in 
perilous times whisper of weakness and danger in the ear of 
woman. Proud as she was, therefore, she had much need to 
consult her wisest subjects. I can not impugn the motives of 
this high-toned woman, placed as she was upon the verge of 
that fearful revolution whose swift wheels were stayed until 



78 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

her eyes were closed in death — I can not blame her that she 
was not endowed with a prophetic vision ; nor did the Puritans, 
whom she subjected to the rigors of a legislation for which 
she was to a degree responsible, though they complained of 
her severity, ever speak of her in terms of disrespect. §he 
took counsel of the most profound scholars and revered pre- 
lates, as well as of that circle of glorious statesmen and phi- 
losophers that have made her name and era forever illustri- 
ous. Doubtless, she felt an honest solicitude to place the 
church upon its original basis, and doubtless many of her 
advisers offered up earnest prayers that they might be led in 
the right way. She, and those who acted under her, did 
much for Christianity and the Protestant faith — more than 
had been effected under any monarch who had gone before 
her. She believed that the church and state were united in 
holy bonds. Had she contented herself with suppressing 
factions ; could she have distinguished between those who 
hated and those who sought to reform the abuses of the 
established church — abuses not inherent in the church, but 
resulting from its alliance with the state, that have since been 
gradually acknowledged and reformed — she might have saved 
herself many cares, and her people many deep wrongs. 

Conformity, even in points that had long been carefully 
evaded, a most rigid, punctilious conformity, was required.* 
Many of the most learned of the clergy,f alarmed at the dis- 
regard paid to the rights of individual conscience, fled in dis- 
may from their places, to avoid the most severe penalties. 
Some flew to foreign lands ; others took refuge in the forests 
and caverns, where it was a crime not only for them to 
preach, but for the people to hsten. In 1583, a Court of High 
Commission was established, to search out and suppress non- 
conformities, clothed with powers the most revolting to the 
spirit of men brought up under the philosophic rule of the 
common law of England, pronounced by Lord Coke to be 
the " perfection of human reason." Under this anomaly, so 
foreign to the British constitution that Burleigh did not 

* Neal's Puritans, i. 396. + Hallam's England, i. 270. 



BIGOTRY AISTD PERSECUTION OF THE AGE. 79 

scruple to liken it to the Spanish inquisition,* such outrages 
were practiced as would scarcely be credible, did not the 
blood of its victims cry out to us from the ground. Two 
men were hanged for distributing Brown's tract on the right 
of a free pulpit.f Ten years after that, Barrow and Green- 
wood were hanged at Tyburn for non-conformity. J These 
violent coercive measures quickened the growth of Puritan- 
ism. At first comprising but a handful of obscure men, in a 
few years it numbered many thousands, and not a few names 
that have since made the world echo with their renown. 

The union of England and Scotland, under James I., was 
hailed by the Puritans as the harbinger of religious liberty. 
But the king soon took more decided grounds against them 
than his predecessor had done. The number* of clergymen 
who were " silenced, imprisoned, or exiled," in a single year, 
has been estimated as high as three hundred. || Mad with the 
doctrine that attributed to kings a divine right, impatient of 
all opposition, this weak monarch evinced his hatred toward 
this now large and respectable portion of his subjects, by acts 
of severity, and language unworthy of a king.§ It is idle to 
attempt to deny these facts, authenticated as they are by vast 
treasuries of English record evidence. No less idle is it to 
reiterate the charge, equally false, that Episcopacy is wholly 
responsible for them. When will a day at last dawn upon 
us, of a light pure enough to dispel the mists of prejudice and 
bigotry that hang over the history of civil and religious lib- 
erty in England ? The puritans were the progressive party. 
They were impatient of the old order of things, just as the 
members of the established church under Elizabeth had them- 
selves a few years before been opposed to the order of things 
then existing. Both these parties were in their turn perse- 
cuted. Each in its turn was denominated radical and incen- 

* Hallam's England, i. 271-273; Strype's Whitgift, 157. 

t Strype's Annals, iii. 186 ; Fuller's Church History, b. ix. 169. 

i Strype's Whitgift, 414 ; Neal's Puritans, i. 526, 527. 

II Calderwood, Neal, &c. 

§ Barlow's Sum and Substance of the Conf. at Hampden Court, 83, 



80 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. • 

diary ; and each persecution, though inflamed by rehgious 
zeal, was essentially political. The English mind, as a whole, 
was not then prepared for entire freedom of conscience. 
Those who were in power were timid and solicitous. They 
deemed every step taken by the popular party as an en- 
croachment upon their own limits, that they were called 
upon to check, or allow themselves ultimately to be sup- 
planted. It was a struggle between conservatism, fortifying 
and defending herself, and progress, advancing to drive her 
from her position. The outrages committed against the puri- 
tans in the reigns of Elizabeth, James, and Charles I., on the 
one hand, and the shocking vindication of them on the other, 
by the iron-handed protector — a vindication revolting, as 
well from the blood that stained its grim features, as from 
the insults so shamelessly offered to the most ancient monu- 
ments of British glory, and the destruction of the most sacred 
temples and shrines — evince alike the wild fermentation out 
of which civil and religious liberty were at last to come. 
Both these parties, when dominant, were overbearing and 
cruel ; when in the minority, were sadly oppressed. Each 
was partly right and partly wrong ; and those writers furnish 
but a poor commentary upon human progress, and wretched 
evidence of that freedom of conscience which is the boast 
of our age, who at this day can find in any party of the 
sixteenth or seventeenth centuries an expression of their 
ideal, either of loveliness or perfection. 

The puritans then were driven to the alternative of giving 
up their own mode of worship, and taking oaths that were 
repugnant to their views of right ; they must renounce all 
political honors and emoluments, all prospects of social ad- 
vancement for themselves and for their children who held to 
the same belief, and remain in England the scoff" of those who 
found it popular to deride them, or they must cast about them 
for a retreat, not straightened and accessible like the forests 
and caves of their native island, where in vain, they had 
sought to hide themselves, but remote and open for the em- 
ployment of their faculties as well as for the exercise of their 



CAUSES OF THE EMIGRATION. 81 

religious rites. Some of them fled to Germany, some to 
Holland, and lingered there till this species of self exile be- 
came too painful to be borne. Then, one after another, sur- 
rounded by his little flock, many a clergyman, who had been 
nursed in the bosom of Oxford or Cambridge, who had long 
sat under the bowers of the manse and eaten of the fruits 
that grew upon the pleasant glebe, who had quickened his 
steps as he walked, when the sweet tones of his church bell 
warned him that the child waited at the font to be signed 
with the mystic sign, made ready to go to a wild, remote 
country, where he might be free from oaths save such as he 
should prescribe for himself, where he might pray and wor- 
ship by no formularies save such as he might choose. 

Right or wrong, this was the leading motive. But other 
motives doubtless operated with greater or less force upon 
many of the emigrants. The mind of the old world was then 
turned toward the new. The various rumors that were rife 
in England with regard to the illimitable extent of this terri- 
tory, washed by the waves of the Atlantic and the South Sea, 
as they vaguely denominated the Pacific ocean, from its very 
vastness, took a strong hold of the imagination ; and these pu- 
ritans, stern and practical as they were, did not escape the 
contagion. There were also stories of exciting adventure to 
stimulate the desires of the young — visions of wealth, from 
rich acres tamed to the possession and uses of man, or from 
the furs of wild animals, floated in the dreams of the prudent 
and money-loving. To deny that the puritans alone were 
free from the promptings of motives such as these, is to claim 
for them what they never arrogated to themselves. They 
were modest men, too earnest in the belief that they were 
sinners, ever to affix to themselves the attributes of God. 

After their arrival here, they sought (why should they not ?) 

to avail themselves of the resources of nature. Hence, urged 

by no necessity, but simply to better their condition, the 

fathers of Connecticut left the Massachusetts for the alluvial 

meadows where they finally established themselves. 

I have thought it best to premise thus much upon the 

6 



82 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

causes that led to the settlement of Connecticut, before in- 
troducing to the reader's notice her first written constitution, 
that was adopted at a general convention of all the planters 
at Hartford, on the 14th of Januaiy, 1639. 

We read in treatises upon elementary law, of a time ante- 
cedent to all law, when men are theoretically said to have 
met together and surrendered a part of their rights for a more 
secure enjoyment of the remainder. Hence, we are told, 
human governments date their origin. This dream of the 
enthusiast as applied to ages past, in Connecticut for the first 
time upon the American soil became a recorded verity. 
Here, at least, we are permitted to look on and see the foun- 
dations of a political structure laid. We can count the work- 
men, and we have become familiar with the features of the 
master builders. We see that they are most of them men 
of a new type. Bold men they are, who have cut loose from 
old associations, old prejudices, old forms ; men who will 
take the opinions of no man, unless he can back them up with 
strong reasons ; clear-sighted, sinewy men, in whom the in- 
tellect and the moral nature predominate over the more deli- 
cate traits that mark an advanced stage of social life. Such 
men as these will not, however, in their zeal to cast off old 
dominions, be solicitous to free themselves and their posterity 
from all restraint ; for no people are less given up to the sway 
of unbridled passions. Indeed, they have made it a main 
part of their business in life to subdue their passions. Laws, 
therefore, they must and will have, and laws that, whatever 
else they lack, will not want the merit of being fresh and 
original. 

As it has been, and still is, a much debated question, what 
kind of men they were — some having over praised, and others 
rashly blamed them — let us, without bigotry, try if we can 
not look at them through a medium that shall render them 
to us in all their essential characteristics as they were. That 
medium is afforded us by the written constitution that they 
made of their own free will for their own government. This 
is said to give the best portrait of any people ; though in a 



[1639.] THE FIRST CONSTITUTION. 83 

nation that has been long maturing, the compromise between 
the past and present, written upon ahnost every page of its 
history, can not have failed in some degree to make the like- 
ness dim. Yet, of such a people as we are describing, who 
may be said to have no past — who live not so much in the 
present as in the future, and who forge as with one stroke the 
constitution that is to be a basis of their laws — are we not 
provided with a mirror that reflects every Hneament with the 
true disposition of light and shade ? If it is a stern, it is yet 
a truthful mirror. It flatters neither those w^ho made it nor 
those blear-eyed maskers, who, forgetful of their own dis- 
torted visages, look in askance, and are able to see nothing 
to admire in the sober, bright-eyed faces of their fathers who 
gaze down upon them from the olden time. 

The preamble of this constitution begins by reciting the 
fact that its authors are, " under Almighty God," inhabitants 
and residents of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield, upon 
"the river Connecticut." It also states that, in consonance 
with the word of God, in order to maintain the peace and 
union of such a people, it is necessary that " there should be 
an orderly and decent government established" that shall 
" dispose of the affairs of tlie people at all seasons." " We do 
therefore," say they, "associate and conjoin ourselves to be 
as one public state or commonwealth." They add, further, 
that the first object aimed at by them, is to preserve the liberty 
and the purity of the gospel and the discipline of their own 
churches ; and, in the second place, to govern their cwil 
affairs, by such rules as their written constitution and the 
laws enacted under its authority shall prescribe. To provide 
for these two objects, the liberty of the gospel, as they under- 
stood it, and the regulation of their own civil affairs, they 
sought to embody in the form of distinct decrees, substan- 
tially the following provisions : 

1. That there shall be every year two general assemblies 
or courts, one on the second Thursday of April, the other on 
the second Thursday of September : that the one held in 
April, shall be called the Court of Election, wherein shall be 



84 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

annually chosen the magistrates, (one of whom shall be the 
governor,) and other public officers, who are to administer 
justice according to the laws here established ; and where 
there are no laws provided, to do it in accordance with the 
laws of God ; and that these rulers shall be elected by all the 
freemen within the limits of the commonwealth, who have 
been admitted inhabitants of the towns where they severally 
live, and who have taken the oath of fidelity to the new 
state ; and that they shall all meet at one place to hold this 
election. 

2. It is provided that after the voters have all met and are 
ready to proceed to an election, the first officer to be chosen 
shall be a governor, and after him a body of magistrates and 
other officers. Every voter is to bring in, to those appointed 
/to receive it, a piece of paper with the name of him whom 
[ he would have for governor written upon it, and he that has 
the greatest number of papers with his name written upon 
them, was to be governor for that year. The other magis- 
trates were elected in the following manner. The names of 
all the candidates were first given to the secretary for the 
time being, and written down by him, in the order in which 
they were given ; the secretary was then to read the list over 
aloud and severally nominate each person whose name was 
so written down, in its order, in a distinct voice, so that all 
the citizen voters could hear it. As each name was read, 
they were to vote by ballot, either for or against it, as they 
liked ; those who voted in favor of the nominee, did it by 
writing his name upon the ballot — those who voted against 
him, simply gave in a blank ballot ; and those only were 
elected whose names were written upon a majority of all the 
paper ballots handed in under each nomination. These 
papers were to be received and counted by sworn officers, 
appointed by the court for that purpose. Six magistrates, 
besides the governoi% were to be elected in this way. If they 
failed to elect so many by a majority vote, then the requisite 
number was to be filled up, by taking the names of those who 
had received the highest number of votes. 



[1639.] THE FIRST CONSTITUTION. 85 

3. The men thus to be nominated and balloted for were to 
be propounded at some general court, held before the court 
of election, the deputies of each town having the privilege 
of nominating any two whom they chose. Other nomina- 
tions might be made by the court. 

4. No person could be chosen governor oftener than once 
in two years. It was requisite that this officer should be a 
member of an approved congregation, and that he should be 
taken from the magistrates of the commonwealth. But no 
qualification was required in a candidate for the magistracy, 
except that he should be chosen from the freemen. Both 
governor and magistrates were required to take a solemn 
oath of office. 

5. To this court of election the several towns were to send 
their deputies, and after the elections were over, the court 
was to proceed, as at other courts, to make laws, or do what- 
ever was necessary to further the interests of the com- 
monwealth. 

6. These two regular courts were to be convened by the 
governor himself, or by his secretary by sending out a war- 
rant to the constables of every town, a month at least before 
the day of session. In times of danger or public exigency, 
the governor and a majority of the magistrates, might order 
the secretary to summon a court, with fourteen days notice, 
or even less, if the case required it, taking care to state their 
reasons for so doing to the deputies when they met. If, on 
the other hand, the governor should neglect to call the regu- 
lar courts, or, with the major part of the magistrates, should 
fail to convene such special ones as were needed, then the 
freemen, or a major part of them, were required to petition 
them to do it. If this did not serve, then the freemen, or a 
majority of them, were clothed with the power to order the 
constables to summon the court — after which they might 
meet, choose a moderator, and do any act that it was lawful 
for the regular courts to do. 

7. On receiving the warrants for these general courts, the 
constables of each town were to give immediate notice to the 



86 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

freemen, either at a public gathering or by going from house 
to house, that at a given place and time they should meet to 
elect deputies to the General Court, about to convene, and 
" to agitate the a,ffairs of the commonwealth." These depu- 
ties were to be chosen by vote of the electors of the town 
who had taken the oath of fidelity ; and no man not a free- 
man was eligible to the office of deputy. The deputies were 
to be chosen by a major vote of all the freemen present, who 
were to make their choice by written paper ballots — each 
voter giving in as many papers as there were deputies to be 
chosen, with a single name written on each paper. The 
names of the deputies when chosen were indorsed by the 
constables, on the back of their respective warrants, and re- 
turned into court. 

8. The three towns of the commonwealth were each to 
have the privilege of sending four deputies to the General 
Court. If other towns were afterwards added to the jurisdic- 
tion, the number of their deputies was to be fixed by the 
court. The deputies represented the towns, and could bind 
them by their votes in all legislative matters. 

9. The deputies had power to meet after they were chosen, 
and before the session of the General Court, to consult for the 
public good, and to examine whether those who had been re- 
turned as members of their own body, were legally elected. 
If they found any who were not so elected, they might 
seclude them from their assembly, and return their names to 
the court, with their reasons for so doing. The court, on 
finding these reasons valid, could issue orders for a new elec- 
tion, and impose a fine upon such men as had falsely thrust 
themselves upon the towns as candidates. 

10. Every regular general court was to consist of the gov- 
ernor and at least four other magistrates, with the major part 
of the deputies chosen from the several towns. But if any 
court happened to be called by the freemen, through the default 
of the governor and magistrates, that court was to consist of 
a majority of the freemen present, or their deputies, and a 
moderator, chosen by them. In the General Court was lodged 



[1639.] THE FIRST CONSTITUTION". 87 

the "supreme power of the cojnmoniuealth." In this court, 
the governor or moderator had power to command hberty of 
speech, to silence all disorders, and to put all questions that 
were to be made the subject of legislative action, but not to 
vote himself, unless the court was equally divided, when he 
was to give the casting vote. But he could not adjourn or 
dissolve the court without the major vote of the members. 
Taxes also were to be ordered by the court ; and when they 
had agreed on the sum to be raised, a committee was to be 
appointed of an equal number of men from each town to 
decide what part of that sum each town should pay.* 

This first written constitution of the new world was simple 
in its terms, comprehensive in its policy, methodical in its ar- 
rangement, beautiful in its adaptation of parts to a whole, of 
means to an end. Compare it with any of the constitutions 
of the old world then existing. I say nothing of those 
libels upon human nature, the so-called constitutions of the 
continent of Europe — compare it reverently, as children 
speak of a father's roof, with that venerated structure, the 
British constitution. How complex is the architecture of the 
latter ! here exhibiting the clumsy handiwork of the Saxon, 
there, the more graceful touch of later conquerors ; the whole 
colossal pile, magnificent with turrets and towers, and deco- 
rated with armorial devices and inscriptions, written in a lan- 
guage not only dead, but never native to the island ; all 
eloquent, indeed, with the spirit of ages past, yet haunted 
with the cry of suffering humanity, and the clanking of 
chains that come up from its subterranean dungeons. Mark, 
too, the rifts and seams in its gray walls — traces of convul- 
sion and revolution. Proud as it is, its very splendor shows 
the marks of a barbarous age. Its tapestry speaks a language 
dissonant to the ears of freemen. It tells of exclusive privi- 
leges, of divine rights, not in the people, but in the king, of 
primogeniture, of conformities, of prescriptions, of serfs and 
lords, of attainder that dries up like a leprosy the fountains 
of inheritable blood ; and lastly, it discourses of the rights of 

* J. Hammond Trumbull's Colouial Records, i, 20. 



88 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

British subjects, in eloquent language, but sometimes with 
qualifications that startle the ears of men who have tasted 
the sweets of a more enlarged liberty. Such was the spirit of 
the British constitution, and code of the seventeenth century. 
I do not blame it, that it was not better ; perhaps it could not 
then have been improved without risk. Improvement in an 
old state, is the work of time. But I have a right to speak 
with pride of the more advanced freedom of our own. 

The constitution of Connecticut sets out with the practi- 
cal recognition of the doctrine, that all ultimate power is 
lodged with the people. The body of the people is the body 
politic. From the people flow the fountains of law and 
justice. The governor, and the other magistrates, the depu- 
ties themselves, are but a kind of committee, with delegated 
powers to act for the free planters. Elected from their num- 
ber, they must spend their short official term in the discharge 
of the trust, and then descend to their old level of citizen 
voters. Here are to be no interminable parliaments. The 
majority of the General Court can adjourn it at will. Nor is 
the're to be an indefinite prorogation of the legislature at the 
will of a single man. Let the governor and magistrates look 
to it. If they do not call a general court, the planters will 
take the matter into their own hands, and meet in a body to 
take care of their neglected interests. 

One of the most striking features in this new, and at that 
time strange document, is, that it will tolerate no rotten-borough 
system. Every deputy, who goes to the legislature, is to go 
from his own town, and is to be a free planter of that town. 
In this way he will know what is the will of his constituents, 
and what their wants are. 

This paper has another remarkable trait. There is to be 
no taxation without representation in Connecticut. The 
towns, too, are recognized as independent municipalities. 
They are the primary centres of power, older than the con- 
stitution — the makers and builders of the State. They have 
given up to the State a part of their corporate powers, as 
they received them from the free planters, that they may 



[1639.] THE FIRST CONSTITUTION. 89 

have a safer guarantee for the keeping of the rest. What- 
ever they have not given up, they hold in absolute right. 

How strange, too, that, in defining so carefully and astutely 
the limits of the government, these constitution makers should 
have forgotten the king. One would not suppose, that those 
who indited this paper were even aware of the existence of 
titled majesty beyond what belonged to the King of kings. 
They mention no supreme power, save that of the common- 
wealth, which speaks and acts through the General Court.* 

Such was the constitution of Connecticut. I have said 
it was the oldest of the American constitutions. More than 
this, I might say, it is the mother of them all. It has been 
modified in different states to suit the circumstances of the 
people, and the size of their respective territories ; but the 
representative system peculiar to the American republics, 
was first unfolded by Ludlow, (who probably drafted the con- 
stitution of Connecticut,) and by Hooker, Haynes, Wolcott, 
Steele, Sherman, Stone, and the other far-sighted men of the 
colony, who must have advised and counseled to do, what 
they and all the people in the three towns met together in a 
mass to sanction and adopt as their own. Let me not be 
understood to say, that I consider the framers of this paper 
perfect legislators, or in all respects free from bigotry and in- 
tolerance. How could they throw off" in a moment the 
shackles of custom and old opinion ? They saw more than 
two centuries beyond their own era. England herself at this 
day has only approximated, without reaching, the elevated table- 

* See Rev. Leonard Bacon's discourse on the Early Constitutional History of Con- 
necticut, p. 5. See, also, Rev. Dr. Ilawes' Centennial Address, which points out 
with great clearness and ability the distinct features of this document. Examine, 
too. Rev. Dr. Bushnell's " Historical Estimate," which should be read by all 
those unworthy sons of Connecticut, now residents here, who in traveling write 
themselves down upon the books of hotels, as citizens of Boston, or New York. 
Such wretches, who, in the language of Wordsworth, would " botanize upon their 
mother's grave," are the only specks that need to be washed off from the surface 
of our history. However, we have occasion to rejoice that they do not indicate 
the degeneracy of Connecticut, as it is believed that none of them sprung from 
the early families. 



90 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

land of constitutional freedom, whose pure air was breathed 
by the earliest planters of Connecticut. Under this consti- 
tution they passed, it is true, some quaint laws, that some- 
times provoke a smile, and, in those who are unmindful of the 
age in which they lived, sometimes a sneer. I shall speak of 
these laws in their order, I hope with honesty and not with too 
much partiality. It may be proper to say here, however, that 
for one law that has been passed in Connecticut of a bigoted 
or intolerant character, a diligent explorer into the English 
court records or statute books for evidences of bigotry, and 
revolting cruelty, could find twenty in England. " Kings 
have been dethroned," says Bancroft, the eloquent Ameri- 
can historian, " recalled, dethroned again, and so many con- 
stitutions framed or formed, stifled or subverted, that memory 
may despair of a complete catalogue ; but the people of 
Connecticut have found no reason to deviate essentially 
from the government as established by their fathers. History 
has ever celebrated the commanders of armies on which 
victory has been entailed, the heroes who have won laurels 
in scenes of carnage and rapine. Has it no place for the 
founders of states, the wise legislators who struck the rock 
in the wilderness, and the waters of liberty gushed forth in 
copious and perennial fountains ?" 




A^^ IE S^ IP (DIBIT 



J^r-f^^^ /J a/i^^^/^cfiytt.. 



CHAPTER V. 

FOUNDING OP NEW HAYEN COLONY. 

It has been found necessary to depart a little from the 
order of events as they transpired, for the sake of a more dis- 
tinct arrangement. Let us now return. 

Although one powerful enemy had been subdued, the little 
commonwealth was threatened by others almost equally for- 
midable. Early in November, the ground was hidden with 
snow. It fell to a great depth during the winter, and re- 
mained until late in March. A second time the people were 
threatened with famine. There was an alarming scarcity 
of corn. Mr. Pyncheon of Agawam, (now Springfield,) a 
gentleman of great resources and tact, was deputed by the 
court to negotiate with the Indians for this then indispensa- 
ble staple of human food. Mr. Pyncheon contracted to fur- 
nish five hundred bushels. But this inconsiderable quantity 
would scarcely keep the inhabitants from starvation a week, 
and it was necessary to take other measures. A vessel was 
dispiatched upon the same errand to the Narragansett bay, 
but it would seem with little success, for it soon became 
necessary to look further. A committee was finally sent to 
Pocomtock, (Deerfield,) where there was a large Indian vil- 
lage, and such large stores of corn, that all apprehensions 
of famine were soon at an end. Such quantities were bought 
there, that the natives came down the river with fifty canoes 
laden with it at one time.* But other troubles pressed hard 
upon the people. The colony, on account of the expenses 
of the Pequot war, was largely in debt. A further outlay 
of money was also needed to provide guns and magazines 
of powder and ball for future security. A tax of six hun- 
dred and twenty poundsf — the first ever levied in Connecti- 

* Mason's History. t J- H- Trumbull's Colonial Records, i. 12. 



92 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

cut — was ordered by the General Court to be immediately 
collected from the towns. This was done in February, 1638, 
and, in the March following, the court appointed John Mason 
commander-in-chief of the militia of Connecticut. He was 
directed to call out the militia of each town in the colony ten 
times during each year, and instruct and practice them in 
military affairs. For this arduous service he received a 
salary of forty pounds.* The eloquent Hooker was desig- 
nated as most fit to deliver to him the staff of his new official 
rank. The ceremony, simple as it doubtless was, must have 
been imposing and memorable to all who witnessed it. But 
I will not attempt to represent a scene that has been described 
by one of the most eloquent of American writers in words 
like the following : 

" Here is a scene for the painter of some future day — I see 
it even now before me. In the distance, and behind the huts 
of Hartford, waves the signal flag by which the town watch 
is to give notice of enemies. In the foreground stands the 
tall, swart form of the soldier in his armor ; and before him, 
in sacred, apostolic beauty, the majestic Hooker. Haynes 
and Hopkins, with the legislature, and the hardy, toil-worn 
settlers and their wives and daughters, are gathered round 
them in close order, gazing Avith moistened eyes at the hand 
which lifts the open commission to God, and listening to the 
fervent prayer that the God of Israel will endue his servant, 
as heretofore, with courage and counsel to lead them in the 
days of their future peril. True, there is nothing classic in 
the scene. This is no crown bestowed at the Olympic 
games, or at a Roman triumph, and yet there is a severe, 
primitive sublimity in the picture, that will sometime be in- 
vested with feelings of the deepest reverence. Has not the 
time already come, when the people of Connecticut will 
gladly testify that reverence, by a monument that shall make 
the beautiful valley of the Yantic, where Mason sleeps, as 
beautifully historic, and be a mark to the eye from one of the 

* J. H. Trumbull's Colonial Records, i. 15. 



[1637.] ARRIVAL OF DAVENPORT AND EATON. 93 

most ancient and loveliest, as well as most populous, towns 
of our ancient commonwealth ?"* 

Meanwhile, a new colony was preparing to plant itself in 
the woods of New England. On the 26th of July, 1637,t 
arrived in Massachusetts, the Rev. John Davenport, accom- 
panied by Theophilus Eaton, Edward Hopkins, and a num- 
ber of other gentlemen of wealth and character, with their 
servants and household effects. They were for the most 
part from London, and had been bred to mercantile and com- 
mercial pursuits. Their coming was hailed at Boston with 
much joy, for they were the most opulent of all the compa- 
nies who had emigrated to New England. 

The Massachusetts planters made strong efforts to retain 
these gentlemen within their own jurisdiction. If they would 
stay, the General Court offered them whatever place they 
might choose,J and the inhabitants of Newbury said they 
would give up their whole town if they would consent to 
occupy it. But the new emigrants had come to found a dis- 
tinct colony, and therefore declined to accept these generous 
overtui'es. They were only in doubt where they should go. 
The pursuit of the Pequots from the mouth of the Thames 
westward along the coast to Fairfield, had led the English to 
explore that charming tract of country, with its inlets, har- 
bors and coves, and its extended plains of ricii, alluvial land, 
enlivened with the sparkling waters of the Housatonic, and 
numerous smaller streams that impart such a pleasing variety 
even to a level country. Those who went upon this expe- 
dition had brought back such a favorable report of the fertility 
of this territory, that it was resolved to make it the seat of a 
new colony. Accordingly, in the fall of the same year, Eaton 
with a few of his friends visited Connecticut, and made a 
careful exploration of the sea-coast and the back country 
adjacent to it. They finally pitched upon a place that had 
a good harbor, called by the Indians, Quinnipiack, as the most 
eligible spot whereon to found the capital city of their colony. 

* Rev. Dr. Bushnell's Historical Estimate of Connecticut, 22, 23. 
t Savage's Winthrop, i. 272 ; Trumbull, i. 95. i Vi^inthrop. 



94 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Here they built a temporary hut, and left a few servants in it 
to keep possession during the winter. The Dutch had been 
familiar with this locality long before, and probably from the 
color of the high rocks, that are visible to a great distance, 
had given it the name of " Red Mount." 

On the 30th of the next March, the whole company set 
sail for Quinnipiack. They must have had a rough voyage, 
as they were a whole fortnight in reaching their destined har- 
bor. They kept their first Sabbath, with services suited to 
the occasion, under a branching oak, large enough to give its 
imperfect shelter to every man, woman, and child, in the 
colony.* We may almost recall this simple yet imposing 
scene. The grim old oak, whose buds, just opened, have not 
yet passed from gray to green, stretching its gnarled limbs 
between the worshipers and the ungenial April sky, darkened 
at brief intervals by flitting clouds ; the brown trunks of the 
elms, their slender boughs at last evincing signs of life ; the 
different varieties of maple, some adorned with blossoms of 
pale green, others blushing in hues bright as those that flush 
the cheek of the young maiden; further off, the dingy cedar, 
with tangled grape vines coiled around its top; in the distance, 
a bald, red rock, bending its well-defined outline around the 
border of the plain ; to the east of it, another of a different 
form rising solitary like a sentinel, a tuft of pines surmounting 
its seamy forehead ; near by, a lively view of dancing blue 
waters, rocking two small ships with reefed sails — make out 
the more marked traits of external nature that meet the eye. 

Beneath the oak, the worshiping assembly is ranged in due 
order. Near the trunk of the tree are the two Batons — one 
in the robes of the English church, for they were not yet 
thrown aside in New England except in the Plymouth colony. 
The Rev. Mr. Prudden, Hopkins, Gregson, Gilbert, and other 
gentlemen — Davenport in canonicles forming the central 

* Trumbull, i. 96. This oak, according to tradition, stood near the north-east 
corner of College and George-streets, (New Haven) in the present door yard of 
a venerable dwelling, in which was born that staunch old divine of the puritan 
stamp, the Rev. Lyman Beecher, D.D. 



[1G38.] THE PLANTATION COVENANT. 95 

figure — opposite them, their wives and daughters ; and at a 
respectful distance the humbler classes, the males and females 
in separate groups ; a sober, decent congregation of Chris- 
tians, setting at naught the inclemencies of the sky, or laying 
them to heart as the chastening frowns of God and the hiding 
of his face for a season, they listen attentively, first to Daven- 
port, as he discourses to them from the first verse of the third 
chapter of St. Mathew, and warns them " of the temptations 
of the wilderness ;"* and then to Prudden, who follows his fel- 
low-laborer with a well-chosen text from the same chapter, 
" The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the 
way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"' Were they druids 
beneath their consecrated groves, the scene would be inter- 
esting and instructive ; but Christians as they are, under 
whatever forms they invoke the aid of Heaven — Christians 
contending with a v/ilderness, that must ultimately fall before 
them, the spectacle is sublime. 

They had not been long at Quinnipiack before they entered 
into a " plantation covenant," the language of which is, " that 
as in matters that concern the gathering and ordering of a 
church, so also in all public affairs that concern civil order, 
they would all of them be ordered by the rules which the 
Scripture held forth to them." 

The spring of that year was backward and forbidding. 
The seed corn rotted in the ground, and the farmers were 
obliged to plant their fields twice, and in some instances three 
times, before the tardy grain sprouted and grew.f This sadly 
disheartened them. But it came up at last, and throve so 
well that they took courage. But on the first of June their 
prospects were again overcast. Between three and four 
o'clock in the afternoon of that day, the whole surface of 
New England was shaken by an earthquake. We are told 
that it came -'like continued thunder," or the rattling of 
coach-wheels along a paved street. In some places it was 
so violent that it threw down the chimney-tops. Nor did it 

* Bacon's " Historical Discourses," 13 ; Kingsley, SO ; Trumbull, i. 96. 
+ Winthrop ; INIortou. 



96 HISTOEY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Stop with the land. The ships trembled in the harbors. The 
islands, as well as the main land, felt the shock. The chron- 
iclers tell us, perhaps with some exaggeration, that the earth 
shuddered for several minutes, and that for many days after 
it was unquiet and tremulous.* 

In the following November, Theophilus Eaton, Mr. Daven- 
port, and other gentlemen, made a contract with Mo-mau- 
gu-in in reference to a sale of lands. A very interesting 
document it is, being in the nature both of a deed of sale of 
Quinnipiack and a league or solemn treaty, offensive and de- 
fensive ; the chief covenanting neither to terrify, disturb, nor 
injure the English, who in return agreed to protect the chief 
and his tribe, and see that they had lands on the east side 
of the harbor both for hunting and tillage. The celebrated 
Thomas Stanton interpreted the indenture, and it was exe- 
cuted with the usual formalities. On the 11th of December 
following, the same gentlemen bought another large tract of 
land lying northerly of the former purchase. This second 
piece of land was ten miles wide from north to south, and 
thirteen miles in length from east to west. It was deeded to 
them by Mon-to-we-se, son of the great sachem of Mat-ta- 
be-seck. It was a valuable territory, and has since been di- 
vided into the towns of New Haven, Branford, Wallingford, 
East Haven, Woodbrid'ge, Cheshire, and North Haven. f To 
one who now stands upon the summit of West Rock, and looks 
off upon the church steeples that are visible within the limits 
of those towns, it seems scarcely credible that the considera- 
tion of this deed was thirteen English coats, with the reser- 
vation of the right to plant and hunt upon the granted pre- 
mises. But the price was an adequate one. What could 
the grantors do with money ? and the liberty to occupy the 
land for the two purposes named in the deed, comprised in 
the mind of an Indian, nearly all that lawyers mean by the 
term fee simple. 

In the character of its imrhigrants the colony of New Haven 
was peculiarly fortunate. Early in the year 1639, another 

* Trumbull, i. 96. t Trumbull, i. 99. 



[1639.] MEETING IN MR. NEWMAN'S BARN, 97 

company of gentlemen of high character arrived from Eng- 
land. This new emigration was headed by the Rev. Henry 
Whitfield. Its other principal men were William Leete, 
afterwards governor of the colony ; Samuel Desborough, 
(or Disbrowe,) to whom Cromwell afterwards assigned the 
post of lord chancellor of Scotland, at a time when he was 
in need of efficient men ; also Robert Kitchel and William 
Chittenden, both men of high character. 

On the 4th of June, 1639, the free planters of Quinnipiack 
met for the first time to form a civil and religious organiza- 
tion. They had no spacious hall, as now, where they might 
assemble and discuss affairs of state. The best shelter from 
the sun that the humble architecture of the place could 
then afford its population, was "Mr. Newman's barn" — 
Robert Newman's, probably — a locality doubly consecrated, 
for here, within a few feet of the spot where the planters of 
Quinnipiack first convened to found a commonwealth, lived 
and died Noah Webster, the first philologist of modern times.* 
A grave matter was pending, and Mr. Davenport brought 
the minds of the planters to a suitable frame, by preaching 
to them from the words of Solomon : " Wisdom hath builded 
her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars." It was a 
pungent and weighty discourse, in the sentiments of which 
Theophilus Eaton probably concurred, as he appears to have 
had a good understanding with his pastor upon all topics. 
The preacher expressed himself very explicitly in reference 
to the divine origin of government, and argued that the 
church and the civil polity were inseparable. Davenport 
claimed that the church ought to be supported by seven pil- 
lars or members of eminent piety, and that the other mem- 
bers should be added to the seven pillars. 

* For the discovery of the location of this primitive hall of legislation, the public 
are indebted to the researches of the Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D., whose eloquent 
" Historical Discourses, on the completion of two hundred years from the begin- 
ning of the first church in New Haven," have brought to light many interesting 
facts in the early history of the New Haven colony, which were before either 
wholly unknown or entirely misapprehended. 

7 



98 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

A series of resolutions were adopted at this meeting, of 
which I subjoin a copy. 

I. That the scriptures hold forth a perfect rule for the di- 
rection and government of all men in all duties which they 
perform to God and men, as well in families and common- 
wealth, as in matters of the church. 

II. That, as in matters which concerned the gathering 
and ordering of a church, so likewise of all public offices 
which concern civil order, as the choice of magistrates and 
officers, making and repealing laws, dividing allotments of 
inheritance, and all things of like nature, they would all be 
governed by those rules which the Scripture held forth to 
them. 

III. That all those who had desired to be received as free 
planters, had settled in the plantation with a purpose, resolu- 
tion, and desire, that they might be admitted into church fel- 
lowship according to Christ. 

IV. That all the free planters held themselves bound to 
establish such civil order as might best conduce to the secur- 
ing of the purity and peace of the ordinance to themselves 
and their posterity according to God. 

V. That church members only should be free burgesses ; 
and that they only should choose magistrates among them- 
selves, to have power of transacting all the public civil affairs 
of the plantation ; of making and repealing laws, dividing in- 
heritances, deciding of differences that may arise, and doing 
all things and businesses of like nature. 

That civil officers might be chosen, and government pro- 
ceed according to these resolutions, it was necessary that 
a church should be formed. Without this there could be 
neither freemen nor magistrates. Mr. Davenport, therefore, 
proceeded to make proposals relative to the formation of 
it, in such a manner that no blemish might be left on the 
"beginnings of church work." It was then resolved to this 
effect : 

VI. That twelve men should be chosen, that their fitness 
for the foundation work might be tried, and that it should be 



[1639.] THE CONSTITUTION OF NEW HAVEN COLONY. 99 

in the power of those twelve men to choose seven to begin 
the church.* 

Under this constitution, so original and unique in some of 
its provisions, that I have been able to find no other pre- 
viously existing to which I might compare it, the colony of 
IVew Haven was organized and continued to flourish for 
many years. The seven pillars were Theophilus Eaton, Es- 
quire, Mr. John Davenport, Robert Newman, Mathevv Gil- 
bert, Thomas Fugill, John Punderson, and Jeremiah Dixon. 
It has attracted much attention, and many severe remarks 
have been made, arraigning it for bigotry and intolerance. 
That it was not erected upon that basis of universal freedom 
pecuHar at that early day to the constitution of Connecticut, 
and that some of its terms are harsh and jar upon the ears 
of men who, in the nineteenth century, have been reared 
under a system of government where the church and the 
state, though on terms of friendly intercourse, have no forced 
or arbitrary connection, can not be denied. The govern- 
ment organized under this constitution has been called a the- 
ocracy, but with what propriety the term has been applied to 
it, I am unable to see. The free planters, without reference 
to church membership, and before their church was instituted, 
met together, debated earnestly the principles that were to 
be embodied in their constitution, and then voted with one 
consent that " church members only should be free burgesses, 
and that they only should choose magistrates among them- 
selves, to have power of transacting all the public civil affairs 
of the plantation." This is not a claim set up by the church, 
to rule the people by virtue of a divine right. As yet, they 
have no church. But the planters themselves designate, of 
their own choice, for reasons that they deem valid, a body or 
class of men whom they choose, out of which all officers of 
civil trust shall be elected. Nor are the interests of the 
church and state in any way blended. No church officer, as 
such, has any civil power. But we are told that these men 
were surely fanatics in one respect ; that they adopted the 

* Trumbull, i. 104, 105. 



100 HISTORY or CONNECTICUT. 

laws of God as laid down in his revealed word. The reader 
will remember that the people of New Haven were fourteen 
months deliberating what kind of constitution they would 
form. They were still more slow and cautious in coming to 
a conclusion what should be the temper and spirit of the 
laws passed under it. And in order that no act of legislation 
might be passed with unseemly haste, they decided to adopt 
the laws of Moses until they could form others more appli- 
cable to the state and condition of their people. What out- 
rage did they perpetrate under these laws ? What injustice 
did they practice either toward the wild tribes of savages 
that surrounded them, or toward their own citizens ? What 
was the practical working of their system ? Let their schools, 
where learning, elastic and free as the air of the north, yet 
substantial and well-grounded as the hills on whose summits 
that air lingers to sport with the cheek of health that meets 
it there — let that fair city, laid out in squares by its first foun- 
ders, as if they were prescient of the beauty that was to adorn 
its forehead like a chaplet of unfading flowers, long after the 
green mounds should be leveled and the monuments thrown 
down that claimed for the leaders of the colony " the passing 
tribute of a sigh" — let these, and the good order that still 
springs up and grows upon the spot as if it were indigenous 
there like the leaves of the shade trees that make the city a 
bower, yet grows not old and fades like them — answer for 
the spirit and the practical workings of the constitution and 
laws of their commonwealth. " By their fruits ye shall know 
them." Bigotry, superstition, intolerance, are words of 
weighty significance in the mouths of wise, dispassionate 
men, when applied to the history of civil and religious lib- 
erty in England and America. But when adopted as the 
catch-words of a party, ecclesiastical or political, and hurled 
like thunderbolts from army to army of the combatants to 
blast and shatter their adversaries, what are they but the 
implements of a blind destruction, at sight of which reason 
retires from the field, and Christian charity shudders as she 
turns away her face ? It is my purpose to avoid the appli- 



[1639.] MILFORD SETTLED. 101 

cation of those words as much as possible in delineating the 
various parties and classes of people representing different 
interests in Connecticut, both before and since the American 
revolution. The laws of the colony of New Haven I shall 
treat of, when I come to express my views of the jurispru- 
dence of Connecticut. 

Having thus established itself at home upon safe founda- 
tions, the colony of New Haven began to send out liberal 
swarms from the metropolitan hive. On the 12th of Feb- 
ruary, 1639, Wepowage (Milford) was purchased,* and Me- 
nunkatuck (Guilford,) in September of that year. Both towns 
were settled according to the New Haven plan. The Rev. 
Peter Prudden led the way in the settlement of Milford. The 
"seven pillars" of the Milford church were, Peter Prudden, 
William Fowler, Edmund Tapp, Zechariah Whitman, Thomas 
Buckingham, Thomas Welch, and John Astwood. Milford 
was an independent commonwealth until 1643, when it be- 
came merged in the colony of New Haven.f Their civil 
institutions did not differ essentially from those of New 
Haven. The planters of Milford were most of them from 
the counties of Essex, Hereford, and York, in England. A 
part of them came first to New Haven ; a still larger part 
followed Mr. Prudden from Wethersfield, where he preached 
for a little while in the course of the year 1638. Among the 
principal gentlemen who came from Wethersfield to Milford, 
were Robert Treat, Esq., afterwards governor of Connecti- 
cut, and renowned both as a civilian and soldier, and John 
Sherman, a venerable name, of whom I shall by and by give 
a more extended sketch. There were fifty-four heads of 
families, and more than two hundred persons in all, who first 
went to Milford. J A more substantial company of emigrants 
never followed a clergyman into the wild woods of America, 
than the fathers of Milford. Guided by Thomas Tibbals, 
they went through the forest from New Haven to Wepow- 
age. An Indian trail was their only path. The territory at 
that time was occupied with the Paugussett Indians, of whose 



* Lambert's Hist., New Ilaveu Colony, 85. + Lambert. J lb. 90. 



102 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

sachem, Ansantawae, the land in the centre of the township 
was purchased by these pioneers. This was a numerous and 
powerful tribe, and occupied a region extending some sixteen 
or eighteen miles along the coast, and reaching at least twelve 
miles into the interior.* My limits forbid that I should at 
present do more than make this brief allusion to the heroic 
little commonwealth' at Milford. 

The first settlers at Guilford were a large proportion of 
them gentlemen. The rest were known as yeomen. Both 
gentlemen and yeomen were almost all planters. There were 
so few mechanics among them that they could scarcely find 
carpenters to build their houses ; not a blacksmith was to be 
found among them, and it was with difficulty that they finally 
procured one. The early citizens of Guilford, almost with- 
out exception, emigrated from Surry and Kent. Mr. Henry 
Whitfield, their clergyman, was of an old English family, and 
had preached with eminent success at Oakley in Surry. He 
was a friend of Mr. Fenwick of Saybrook. An intimacy 
also existed between him and Desborough. Desborough was 
the first magistrate of Guilford. Indeed, he appears to have 
been born to good fortune. Some more minute account of 
him may not only interest the reader, but serve to correct 
some errors into which several of our antiquaries have fallen, 
who appear to have mistaken him for John, his elder brother, 
who was a brother-in-law of Cromwell, and a major-general. 
Samuel Desborough was* the third surviving son of James 
Desborough, Esquire, and was born at Ellisley, on the third 
of November, 1619. After his return to England in 1650 he 
was immediately sent to Scotland to enter upon the dis- 
charge of some public trust under the government, at the 
instance of his brother John, and of Oliver Cromwell, who 
was then a general in the army. He was soon after chosen 
a member of Parliament to represent the city of Edinburgh. 
On the 4th of May 1655, at a council held at Whitehall, 
Oliver Cromwell, then Lord Protector, appointed him one of 
the nine counselors for the kingdom of Scotland. In 1656 

* Deforest, 50. 



DESBOROUGH. 103 

he was elected a member of parliament for the sheriffdom of 
Midlothian. He manifested such singular ability in the 
discharse of these several official functions, and became such 
a favorite of the Protector, that on the 16th of September, 
1657, was made keeper of the great seal of Scotland. He 
continued lord chancellor of Scotland during the remainder 
of Cromwell's life, and during the brief reign of his son 
Richard, and after the restoration, when the royal proclam- 
ation made at Breda, reached him, he thankfully availed him- 
self of the clemency so graciously tendered him, and signed 
his submission to king Charles II. on the 21st of May, 1660. 

He was ever after treated by the king with kindness and 
delicacy. None of his ample estate resulting from a lucra- 
tive office was confiscated. He retired to his seat at Els- 
worth where he continued to reside in a munificent and 
hospitable manner until his death, which happened on the 
10th of December, 1690. On the south side of the com- 
munion rails in the chancel of the venerable old church at 
Els worth is a black marble slab with a simple inscription 
commemorative of the virtues of Samuel Desborough, lord 
chancellor of Scotland. On the north side of the commu- 
nion rails in the same chancel is a corresponding memorial 
informing the reader that Rose Pennyer, the wife, who was 
proud to share his noonday honors and his later fortunes, is 
resting by his side. 

There are still extant a portrait of Lord Desborough, and an 
excellent miniature. The latter is by Cooper. Both repre- 
sent him in middle life. The face is oval, with whiskers, a 
small lock extending beneath the lower lip. The features are 
very handsome and engaging ; the eye bright and piercing ; and 
the whole countenance, expressive of that good sense, discrim- 
inating judgment, moral courage, and quick zeal tempered by 
discretion and experience that constituted the best traits ol 
his marked and commanding character.* Such was Des- 
borough, magistrate of GuiUbrd. In naming the princi- 
pal gentlemen of Guilford, we should not forget to speak 

* Noble's " House of Cromwell," vol. ii. pp. 295, 296. 



104 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

in this place of William Leete, Esq. He emigrated from 
Cambridge, where he was for some time register of the Bish- 
op's Court. He had been bred to the law in England. When 
Desborough left the peaceful magistracy at Guilford to mingle 
in the stormy civil wars that convulsed England, Leete be- 
came his successor. He played an important part in the his- 
tory of the colony at a later day — so we leave him for the 
present. John Cafinge, also, was one of the first planters of 
Guilford. The town was at first independent of New Haven 
colony, and had its own constitution and code of laws for 
several years. 

The year 1639 was fruitful in the birth of new plantations, 
and Connecticut did her part toward peopling what might 
■ then with propriety be called " the west," The reader will 
remember that Ludlow, the great lawyer and statesman of 
the colony, had accompanied as a counselor the little army 
that followed the remnant of the Pequots to Sasco swamp, 
where they made their last unavailing stand against the allied 
powers of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Ludlow, who 
was not only a good lawyer and an enthusiastic lover of lib- 
erty, but a man whose love of adventure fitted him for pio- 
neer life and whose exuberant imagination asked for ampler 
room in which to expand itself, fixed his sagacious eye on the 
rich plains of Un-quo-wa, (Fairfield,) and saw at a glance 
their natural advantages. Indeed, he saw every thing at a 
•zlance. His mind intuitively recognized the relations of 
things the most abstract as well as those connected with the 
common affairs of life. He had that gift of insight and 
love of moral beauty that forms a principal element in the 
mind of a great poet like Milton. His views upon govern- 
ment more nearly resemble Milton's than those of any other 
writer upon constitutional liberty of the seventeenth century. 
Ludlow, such as I have represented him, could not long re- 
main without the excitement of another removal, and selected 
Fairfield as his point of destination. He was an inhabitant 
of Windsor, and took with him eight or ten families, his 
neighbors and admirers. This handful of adventurers was 



[1639.] STRATFORD SETTLED. 105 

soon joined by a party from Watertovvn, Massachusetts, and 
not long after another accession was made to its numbers 
from Concord. Under the auspices of Ludlow, the planta- 
tion soon grew into a large town, and became, as it has ever 
since remained, a part of Connecticut. The township was 
honorably purchased of the Indians. 

Within the range of the same year, those parts of Stratford 
called Cupheag and Pughquonnuck were purchased, and set- 
tlements commenced there under the superintendence of Mr. 
Fairchild, who was the first magistrate of the town. John 
and William Curtis and Samuel Hawley came from Rox- 
bury, Massachusetts, and Joseph Judson was from Concord. 
These were the earliest planters and principal gentlemen 
of Stratford. Afterwards, a few heads of families arrived 
from Boston, and Samuel Wells from Wethersfield with 
three sons. The first clergyman of Stratford was Mr. Adam 
Blackman, who had preached with eminent success, first at 
Leicester and then in Derbyshire, England. He was a gen- 
tleman of such pleasant manners and so many winning traits 
of character, that many of his parishioners followed him to 
America. He had been a clergyman of the church of Eng- 
land. " Entreat us not to leave thee," said his weeping flock, 
as they gathered about him, " for whither thou goest we will 
go, thy people shall be our people, and thy God our God." 
This beautiful town bordering on the Housatonic river and 
Long Island sound, and commanding a pleasant view of each, 
has been the scene of many stirring adventures and thrilling 
incidents, and is hallowed as the residence of men whose 
names are " of the treasures" not only of the State but of the 
nation. It is too early in the order of events to mention them. 



CHAPTER VI. 

COLONEL PENWICK ESTABLISHES A GOTERNMENT AT SATBROOK. 

While the people of Connecticut and New Haven were 
thus enlarging their boundaries, there sprang up at the mouth 
of Connecticut river a new commonwealth, independent of 
them both ; indeed, with rights paramount to theirs, even to 
the very soil that the}^ occupied, had its proprietors chosen 
to assert them — for those proprietors, the Lord Say and Seal, 
the Lord Brooke, and others, it will be remembered, had a 
paper title to a vast region, embracing much more than the 
territory now called Connecticut, This new commonwealth 
was established by Colonel George Fenwick, who, with his 
wife, sometimes known as Lady Fenwick and sometimes as the 
Lady Alice Boteler, together with the other members of his 
household, arrived about midsummer of the year 1639.* Col- 
onel Fenwick had in his charge two ships, and was accom- 
panied by several gentlemen of high respectability, who, 
with their attendants, aided in laying the foundations of Say- 
brook — for so they named the settlement in honor of two of 
its principal patrons and proprietors. Colonel Fenwick was 
one of the original patentees, and acted in their behalf. Thei'e 
had been a garrison kept up at the fort since its first erection 
by Mr. Winthrop, in 1635,f but no civil government was or- 
ganized until the arrival of Colonel Fenwick and his com- 
pany. Among the first proprietors of this town were Captain 
John Mason, Thomas Tracy, Lyon Gardiner, who was the 
commander of the fort, and Thomas LefRngwell. The Rev. 
Thomas Peters was the first clergyman there. L^pon its 
early records, also, appear the names of Huntington, Baldwin, 
Backus, Hyde, Bliss, Whittlesey, Waterman, and Dudley. 
Houses had been built under the superintendence of Win- 
throp for gentlemen of quality in connection with the fort, 

* Trumbull, i. 110. f Savage's Winthrop, i. 207, 208. 



[1639. 



WETHERSFIELD AND MIDDLETOWN. 107 



SO that Colonel Fenwick experienced less of hardship and 
privation in carrying out his enterprise than was usual with 
the founders of new settlements. Saybrook, as I have said, 
owed no allegiance to Connecticut. She had her own inde- 
pendent government, which was administered by Colonel 
Fenwick until the year 1644,\vhen it fell into the hands of 
Connecticut. 

In the meantime, the citizens of Wethersfield had become 
involved in a quarrel with Sowheag, the great sachem of 
Mattabesett, (Middletown,) that threatened the colony with 
another Indian war. Sowheag was originally not only the 
proprietor of the present towns of Middletown and Chatham, 
but his jurisdiction extended into Pyquag, (Wethersfield.)* 
The inhabitants of Wethersfield — who had never forgotten 
the murders committed by the Indians in the spring of 1637, 
and the theft and abduction of the two maidens, of whose fate 
they were so long kept in doubt — had at last found out that 
the Pyquag Indians, under their old chief Sowheag, had aided 
the Pequots in perpetrating those outrages. This was the 
original cause of the quarrel. Sowheag protected the guilty 
Indians, and carried himself haughtily towards the planters 
of Wethersfield, who complained of his conduct, and insisted 
that he should give up the murderers. The court decided, 
after giving all the matters in dispute a grave hearing, that 
the Wethersfield people had been the aggressors, and there- 
fore that they should forgive Sowheag, and continue on terms 
of friendship with him. Mr. Samuel Stone and Mr. Good- 
win were appointed a committee to bring about a reconcilia- 
tion. But these discreet gentlemen could effect nothing. The 
planters were willing to listen to fair terms ; but Sowheag not 
only refused to deliver up the murderers to justice, but also 
added new insults and injuries to the old. In this state of 
affairs, the court determined to send one hundred men to 
Mattabesett to take the murderers by force, and dispatched 
a messenger to New Haven to inform the authorities there 
of the proposed expedition. This project did not receive any 

* Rev. Dr. Field's Centennial Address at Middletown. 



108 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

countenance at New Haven.* The governor and his coun- 
cil agreed to the proposition, that the delinquents ought to 
be punished, but did not like that mode of doing it. They 
dreaded, they said, to be involved in an Indian war. They 
had hitherto kept aloof from all troubles with the Indians, and 
meant to do so as long as they could. They regarded war 
as a horrible calamity. Connecticut followed the advice of 
New Haven, and wisely abandoned the enterprise. 

War, however, was resolved on in another quarter. The 
Pequots had agreed, at the close of the campaign that resulted 
in the overthrow of their tribe and the partition of the wretched 
remnant that survived among the three rival chiefs who were 
eager for the spoils, that they would never again organize 
themselves as a distinct people, would never resort to their 
old haunts, rebuild their wigwams, range the hunting grounds, 
or plant the fields that had been taken from them. This 
agreement they had violated by taking possession of Pawca- 
tuck, a part of the prohibited country, erecting some huts 
there, and planting some fields with corn. The court there- 
fore sent Mason with forty EngUshmen, with instructions to 
" drive them ofl^, burn their wigwams, and bring away their 
corn."f Uncas, with one hundred Indians and twenty ca- 
noes, went with the English leader. On his arrival at Paw- 
catuck, Mason fell in with three Pequots, and sent them for- 
ward to inform their friends of his coming, and to advise them 
to leave the place peaceably. Whether the couriers did their 
errand is doubtful, for when Mason had landed his men and 
surrounded the little vi[lage, the Indians were so taken by 
surprise that they had no time to carry off their treasures or 
their corn. They fled in hot haste, leaving their old men to 
the mercy of their enemies, who did them no harm. Uncas 
had a little skirmish with about fifty of the warriors, that re- 
sulted in the injury of neither party, but served to amuse the 
English who stood still and witnessed it. Seven persons 

* See J. H. Trumbull's Colonial Records, i. 31, 3D. 

+ For some particulars of the doings of the court at this time, and the causes 
that led to this second expedition against the Pequots, see J. H. Trumbull, i. 31, 32. 



[1639.] SECOND EXPEDITION AGAINST THE PEQUOTS. 109 

were taken, whose lives were spared at the intercession of a 
Narragansett sachem. Mason and his men spent the night 
on board their vessel that was anchored in the little creek. 
As soon as it was light, they were surprised to see on the 
shore not far off about three hundred armed Indians. The 
soldiers were ordered under arms. The sight of the English- 
men so terrified the Indians, that some of them fled, and 
others hid themselves behind the rocks and trees. In a 
minute not an Indian was to be seen. Mason now called 
to them. " I desire to speak to you," said he, in a loud voice. 
In an instant numbers of them rose up and timidly showed 
themselves. Mason proceeded to say, that the Pequots had 
broken their covenant. He was interrupted by the Indians, 
who replied with much energy, " The Pequots are good men, 
and we will fight for them, and protect them." "It is not 
far to the head of the creek," resumed Mason ; " I will meet 
you there, and we will try what we can do at fighting." 
"We will not fight with Englishmen for they are spirits; 
but we will fight with Uncas," replied the sons of the forest. 

The Indians were near by the whole day, while the Eng- 
lish were destroying the wigwams and carrying on board the 
rich harvest of corn that they found there, but they did not 
dare to interpose. The corn, kettles, trays, mats, wampum, 
and other treasures, filled the vessel and fifty canoes. Thirty 
of these canoes were taken from the Indians.* 

In August of this year, the first steps were taken toward 
" a general confederation of the colonies for mutual offense 
and defense." The General Court of Connecticut appointed 
the deputy governor, Roger Ludlow, Mr. Thomas Wells, and 
Mr. Hooker, a committee to repair to Saybrook and consult 
with Colonel Fenwick on this important matter.f Colonel 
Fenwick " was in favor of a union of all the New England 
colonies." This proposed union was to guard the English 
settlements against the Dutch at New Netherlands, (New 
York,) who were rapidly increasing in wealth and numbers, 
and whose new governor, William Kieft, had forbidden the 

* See Mason's History ; also Trumbull, i. 113, + Colonial Records. 



110 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

English to carry on their trade at "Good Hope," and had 
made a solemn protest against the occupation of Quinni- 
piack by the English. This proposal, to organize a general 
confederation, was the first breaking up of the fallow ground 
wherein to sow the seeds of that great confederation of the 
thirteen colonies, which, more than a century and a quarter 
later, gave such a fatal blow to the British dominion upon 
this continent, and laid the foundations of an empire that will 
soon have no boundaries more circumscribed than the polar 
ice of the Arctic on the north, and upon the east, south, and 
west, the tides of those oceans, gulfs, and seas, that in their 
ceaseless ebb and flow so fitly represent the inexhaustible 
energies of the greatest republic of the world. 

This year, also, on the 10th of October, the General Court 
incorporated all the towns in the commonwealth, and author- 
ized them to manage their own internal affairs.* This 
amounted to little more than a recognition of rights previ- 
ously existing, but was highly important, as it defined the 
limits of the local jurisdictions by instituting a local tribunal 
in each town. This tribunal consisted of a body of men not 
less than three nor more than seven — one of whom was to be 
called a moderator. They were called "principal men," and 
were to be chosen by the votes of the respective towns. A 
majority of these " principal men," including the moderator, 
who was only to have a casting vote, was to constitute a 
municipal court in each town. This court brought justice 
home to the door of every man in the colony. It had juris- 
diction of all matters of trespass or debt where the matter in 
demand did not exceed forty shillings. It held its stated 
sessions once every two months. 

At this session, our admirable system of recording all con- 
veyances of land was instituted. " The towns," say the 
court, " shall each of them provide a ledger book with an 
index or alphabet unto the same ; also shall choose one who 
shall be a town clerk or register, who shall, before the Gen- 
eral Court in April, next, record every man's house and land 

* J. H. Trumbull, i. 36, 37. 



[1639.] PKOBATE REGULATIONS. Ill 

already granted." It is made the duty of the owners of lands, 
under heavy penalties, to present to the town clerk a descrip- 
tion of their real estate for record. " The like to be done for 
all land hereafter granted and measured to any ; and all bar- 
gains or mortgages of lands whatsoever shall be accounted 
as of no value until they be recorded." 

This excellent safeguard against fraudulent conveyances 
has with some modifications continued to exist in Connecticut 
from that day to the present. It is one of those monuments 
of legislative wisdom erected by our fathers, of which there 
are so many still standing. A legal provision, in order to 
endure the test of time, must embody a principle and teach 
some great moral lesson. It must be a commentary at once 
upon the necessities that compel man to conform to the rules 
of civil society, based as they are upon eternal justice and 
equity, while it is no less a commentary upon that corrupt 
heart and those unruly passions that are perpetually inciting 
him to violate those rules. 

At this session, also, the dead were remembered as well as 
the living ; and provision was made for taking an inventory 
of the estate of deceased persons, carrying into effect their 
wills either written or nuncupative, if they left any ; or, if 
they died intestate, to see that a proper administration was 
had of their effects, and an equitable distribution made to the 
heirs. Wills and all proceedings in the settlement of estates 
were to be recorded. If no kindred of the deceased could be 
found having inheritable blood, then his estate was to escheat 
to the commonwealth, care being taken to register a perfect 
inventory of his property, so that if legal representatives 
should ever appear, they might receive what justly belonged 
to them. 

I merely allude to these great landmarks of our jurispru- 
dence as historical facts, that will be treated of at lensrth 
elsewhere. 

It proved to be no easy matter for the colonies of Connec- 
ticut and New Haven to get the Indian title to their lands. 
There were so manv orisrinal elements amonsr the different 



112 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Indian tribes, that in some instances it became necessary, for 
the sake of peace, to purchase the lands several times over. 
The colony of Connecticut bought of Uncas the whole Mo- 
hegan country, and was obliged to pay for it many times in 
the troubles and quarrels that were thrown upon them by 
their connection with that i^estless chief The inhabitants 
of the towns, too, were obliged, when they made their settle- 
ments, to pay Uncas for the same land. 

In 1640, the commonwealth bought Waranoke, (Westfield,) 
and began a settlement there. The same year, Roger 
Ludlow purchased of the Indians that part of Norwalk 
that lies between the Saugatuck and Norwalk rivers. Cap- 
tain Patrick bought the central part of the town, and a few 
hardy men with their families soon removed thither. The 
western part of the town was not purchased until 1651.* 

Greenwich was bought about the same time in behalf of 
the colony of New Haven. But through the address of the 
indefatigable governor of New Netherlands, the inhabitants 
were induced to put themselves under his protection — who 
with much solemnity proceeded to incorporate the new 
town.f If his Dutch excellency was guilty of any treachery, 
as the New England writers of that day charged upon him, 
he was well requited for it. The Indians'-^drove otfthe plan- 
ters of Greenwich. Indeed, no settlement could ever thrive 
there until Connecticut procured her charter and took the 
plantation under her protecting wing. 

Connecticut further extended her li ' its by making a pur- 
chase of a large tract of land upon Long Island. This terri- 
tory extended from the eastern boundary of Oyster Bay to 
the western line of Holmes' Bay. It was a large and valuable 
tract, embracing the whole northern portion of the island be- 
tween the limits above described. The eager planters has- 
tened to occupy it. 

New Haven was not td--be outstripped by her older sister 
in this work of planting new towns. Some of her most en- 

* History of Norwalk. 

t De Vrics, 152 ; Brolhead, i. 294, 296 ; Trumbull, i. 118. 



t . WETHERSFIELD. 113 

terprising planters were therefore not long in securing the 
title to Rippowams, which they bought honorably of two 
principal chiefs, Ponus and Toquanske. This grant con- 
tained the entire town of Stamford. Richard Denton was 
their first minister. New Haven also took a still more ad- 
venturous flight when, soon after, she sent men under Cap- 
tain Turner to buy lands on both sides of Delaware Bay, and 
followed up the negotiation by sending fifty families to take 
immediate possession.* New Haven further prosecuted the 
work of colonization by obtaining a deed from the Corchaug 
Indians of the eastern extremity of Long Island. The In- 
dian name of the place was Yennicock, which the English 
changed to that of Southold. This plantation was com- 
menced under the direction of the Rev. John Youngs of 
Hingham, in Norfolk, who arrived in New Haven that sum- 
mer with his parishioners, and, after reorganizing his church 
after the plan of that colony, soon set sail for Long Island, 
and commenced a settlement. Some of the leading planters 
were William Wells, Jeremiah Vaile, and Matthias Corwin. 
Of all the towns belonging to Connecticut, Wethersfield 
seems from the first to have been most involved in difficul- 
ties, civil and ecclesiastical. The settlement had been com- 
menced by a high-spirited and very excitable people, impatient 
of control, delighting in the most daring enterprises, and stim- 
ulated rather than alarmed at the dangers that beset them. 
Did the Pequots make a fierce incursion into the settlement, 
murder and scalp a part of their freeholders, and carry off 
their fair maidens ? So far from striking terror into the 
hearts of those who remained, it only stirred them up to a 
resistance so determined and obstinate, not only against the 
Pequots, 1 'It against the chief upon the Connecticut river, 
who was lought to have harbored the delinquents, that the 
authority of the General Court commanding them to forgive 
the suspected sachem and take him into their confidence, 
availed so little, that, but for the timely interposition of New 
Haven the colony would have again been involved in war. 

* New Haven Colony Records. 



114 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Their conduct in leaving the jurisdiction of the Massachu- 
setts, in opposition to the decision of the General Court, had 
ehcited the remark from their friends at Cambridge, " that it 
was the opportunity of seizing a brave piece of meadow," 
that led them with such precipitate haste to seek the valley 
of the Connecticut — a remark not entirely disinterested, we 
may infer from the fact, that these very neighbors had an 
eye upon that same brave piece of meadow-land. This 
restlessness of the citizens of Wethersfield, so much spoken 
of by our early writers, was attributable, among other causes, 
to the fact, that they left Massachusetts without a clergyman 
to lead them. 

We have seen how the settlement of Hartford was begun. 
Windsor had a similar origin, being led into pleasant past- 
ures, and to lie down by the still waters, under the mild 
authority of the Rev. John Wareham, that melancholy 
shepherd, whose desponding eye, lenient and gentle towards 
the faults of others, was yet so stern and austere vvhen 
turned upon hi^ own, that he did not dare at all times to 
partake of the bread and wine that he administered at the 
sacrament, fearing, in the beautiful words of his biographer, 
that the seals of the covenant were not for him. Aside from 
the salutary influence of Mr. Wareham upon the people of 
Windsor, he was seconded by a large number of gentlemen, 
at the head of whom stood Henry Wolcott and Roger Lud- 
low, Esquires, and Captain John Mason. That the reader 
may see of what choice materials the population of this town 
was composed, I may add to these, the names of Whitefield, 
Eggleston, Holcombe, Marshall, Pomeroy, Strong, Tudor, 
Parkham, Buckland, Palmer, Terry, Watson, Phelps, Gris- 
wold, Moore, Hurlbut, Williams, Denslow, Loomis, and 
Thornton. The Ellsworths arrived there at a later day. The 
other early towns in Connecticut and New Haven colonies 
had the same advantage. But Wethersfield was without this 
balance-wheel to steady her motions. Her people had left 
Mr. Phillips behind them in Watertown, and in the hurry to 
emigrate, (\^ho that ever saw the Naubuc meadows, and the 



FIEST SETTLERS OF WETHERSFIELD. 115 

fields of Nayaug, or drank of the healing waters of the pools 
of Neipsic, can blame them for it ?) that they forgot their dis- 
cipline, and for awhile broke their ranks, in the eager pur- 
suit of treasures so dazzling to the eye. Hence, the unhappy 
troubles and strifes during the first few years after they es- 
tablished themselves there. Hence, too, it fell out that 
scarcely a new plantation was made in the colony, for a long 
time, that did not receive some of its most opulent and best 
planters from the discontented of Wethersfield. The clergy- 
men and more influential members of the church, both of 
Hartford and Windsor, did what they could to tranquil ize 
those differences. At last, in 1641, the Rev. Mr. Daven- 
port, and other gentlemen, from New Haven, were called in as 
advisers. Mr. Davenport, who seems to have had a quick 
knowledge of the governing motives of men, and a happy fa- 
cility in giving good advice in difficult emergencies, proposed 
that the contending parties, as they could not well be reconcil- 
ed, should separate ; and that one of them should go away, and 
make a new settlement by themselves. At first this council did 
not avail, for they could not decide which party should go. 
The church at Watertown, Mass., now took them in hand, but 
without much better success. At length, as matters were all 
the while growing worse, Mr. Andrew Ward, Mr. Robert 
Coe, and twenty other planters, with their families, followed 
the advice of Mr. Davenport, and removed to Stamford, thus 
placing themselves under the protection of New Haven 
colony. Among those gentlemen who removed were the 
Rev. Richard Denton, Matthew Mitchel, Thurston Raynor, 
Richard Law, and Richard Gildersleeve. Among the prin- 
cipal gentlemen of Wethersfield, who remained or soon after 
arrived, were the names of Welles, Wyllys, Talcott, Good- 
rich, Hollister, Wright, Kimberly, Kilbourn, Hale, Treat, Bel- 
den, Deming, Smith, and Bacon. Most of these proprietors 
owned land on the eastern bank of the Connecticut, in that 
part of the town now embraced within the boundaries of 
Glastenbury ; and several of them built upon those estates 
and removed there long before the incorporation of the last 



116 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

mentioned town. Almost all of these families, before 1700, 
intermarried, and from their blood have sprung many of the 
brightest ornaments of Connecticut.* 

The Dutch and English had so many difficulties during 
the years 1641 and 1642, and the Indians assumed such a 
hostile attitude towards our colonies, that in 1643 the old 
proposition for a confederation of the New England colonies 
was renewed on the part of Connecticut, and pressed with 
great earnestness, f Indeed, she had for several years pre- 
vious annually appointed delegates to go to Massachusetts 
to urge forward this project that appeared to be of such 
vital importance to all the colonies, especially to the weaker 
ones. 

Massachusetts, from her independent resources and com- 
paratively dense population, was not so much exposed as the 
other colonies to foreign invasion. She therefore felt less 
anxiety to form an alliance that might impose upon her some 
unpleasant burdens. But Connecticut and New Haven, 
with their towns scattered along the coast, planted remote 
upon Delaware Bay and Long Island, where the Dutch, the 
Swedes, and the Indians had an easy access to them, were 
warned early by their critical situation, to adopt some per- 
manent measures for self-protection. Massachusetts claimed 
a part of the Pequot country by right of conquest. She also 
claimed Springfield and Westfield, which towns it was in- 
sisted belonged to the jurisdiction of Connecticut. By de- 
laying to comply with the urgent request of Connecticut in 
reference to the desired confederation, this powerful colony 
hoped the more readily to bring her weaker sister to admit 
both these claims. 

But clouds now gathered darkly over all the colonies. In 
May, four of them, Connecticut, New Haven, Saybrook, and 
Plymouth, all sent commissioners to Boston. Connecticut 
selected Governor Haynes and Edward Hopkins ; New 

* See Rev. Dr. Chapin's History, in which the genealogies of nearly all those 
families are fully given. 
+ Colony Records. 



[1643.] FIRST AMERICAN CONGRESS. 117 

Haven chose Governor Eaton and Mr. Gregson ; Governor 
Winslow and Mr. Collier represented Plymouth ; Col. Fen- 
wick went in behalf of Saybrook ; and Massachusetts con- 
fided her interests to the care of Governor Winthrop, Dud- 
ley, Bradstreet, associated with Hawthorne, Gibbons, and 
Tyng — a body of men whom I name with pride, as worthy 
to represent the American Colonies in their first association 
against foreign encroachment ; worthy, too, to prefigure and 
typify that other body of men who, at a later day, affixed 
their names to a paper which was at once a protest against 
the tyranny of proscription, and a memorial of the rights of 
man, that will gradually extend its benign dominion, until, of 
the strong holds of despotic power, whether American, Euro- 
pean, or Asiatic, there shall not be left one stone upon 
another that is not thrown down. 

These articles of confederation commence by stating the 
object of all the colonies in removing to America, and then 
proceed to name them " The United Colonies of New Eng- 
land." They go on to declare, that they do jointly and 
severally enter into a firm and perpetual league of friendship 
and amity, oflfense and defense, mutual aid and service.* 

The distinct sovereign jurisdiction of each contracting 
power is not only provided for, but it is expressly stated, that 
no two colonies shall be united in one, nor any other colony 
be received into the confederacy, without the consent of the 
whole. Each colony, without reference to size, is to send 
two commissioners, and no more. These commissioners are 
to meet once every year. They are clothed with power to 
make war and peace, laws and rules for the protection and 
regulation of the confederacy. In case there should be a 
war offensive or defensive, involving the interests of the 
whole, or any one of the allied powers, the expense was to 
be borne according to the number of the male inhabitants in 
each colony, between the ages of sixteen and sixty years. 
When any member of the confederation was invaded, all the 

* For a copy of the articles of confederation, see Hazard's State Papers, vol. ii. 
first article. 



118 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Others were bound to send troops to its assistance — Massa- 
chusetts, one hundred ; each of the others, forty-five men. 
Before more could be demanded, there must be a special 
meeting of the commissioners. 

In this New England Congress, the vote of six commis- 
sioners upon any measure was binding upon the whole body. 
If those who voted for it were less than six, and yet consti- 
tuted a majority, the matter should be referred to the General 
Court of each colony, and should not be binding, unless the 
courts unanimously ratified it. It was provided, too, that all 
servants running from their masters, and all criminals flying 
from justice, from one colony to another, should, upon de- 
mand and proper evidence of their character as fugitives, be 
returned — the servants to their masters, the accused to the 
colonies whence they fled. 

From this brief synopsis of these articles of confederation, 
it will be seen how analagous they are to the articles of con- 
federation of the thirteen colonies, as well as to the present 
Constitution of the United States of America. 

The new government was soon put in requisition. The 
Pequots and Narragansetts, as will be remembered, had been 
enemies long before the Pequot war. After the overthrow 
of Sassacus, and the division of the little remnant of his 
people among the Narragansetts, the Nihanticks and Mohe- 
gans, the two most powerful tribes who shared the spoils, 
soon began to entertain the most vindictive feelings towards 
each other. Miantinomoh represented the Narragansetts, 
and Uncas the Mohegans. Whether Miantinomoh was 
angry at the unequal distribution of the Pequots, or whether 
his more open and generous nature was goaded to acts of 
violent recrimination by the arts of his more subtle antagon- 
ist, or whether the Narragansett sachem had become tired 
of the monotony of peace, and sought an occasion to prac- 
tice himself and his warriors in the old pastime, that made 
life so full of pleasant incident to them, I am unable to say. 

One cause of this ill blood was probably the attack made 
by Uncas upon Sequasson, a Connecticut river sachem, who 



[1643.] UNCAS AND MIANTINOMOH. 119 

was a kinsman of Miantinomoh. It appears that Uncas 
had killed several of Sequasson's warriors, and burned his 
wigwams ; and that the haughty Narragansett took up the 
quarrel, and determined to punish Uncas for these acts of 
violence. Whatever may have been the cause of Miantino- 
moh's hostile feelings towards Uncas, and whether they 
were justifiable or not, it is certain that the Narragansett 
chief violated the very condition on which he had received 
his share of the Pequots — that of maintaining perpetual 
peace with all the contracting parties — and had commenced 
open hostilities against Uncas. At the same time it was 
believed, that he used all his eloquence and address to 
incite a general insurrection of the Indians against the 
English. It was thought, too, that the Indians were em- 
ployed in preparing guns and ammunition, and were making 
a general preparation for war. The people of Connec- 
ticut thought themselves obliged again to keep watch 
and ward every night, from sunset to sunrise, in all their 
towns. 

Connecticut sent letters to the Court at Boston, asking for 
one hundred men to be sent to Saybrook Fort, to be ready 
for any emergency. But the Court of Massachusetts was 
not satisfied that it was necessary to take such a step, and 
declined complying with the request. 

Miantinomoh made no declaration of war against Uncas. 
His preparations were all secret. He collected a choice 
army of not less than six hundred warriors, and stealthily set 
forth for the Mohegan country. It was hot summer weather, 
when some of the enemy might be expected to linger in the 
shade, to protect their squaws, while they were in the fields 
taking care of the growing corn, others to be found loitering 
under the shadows of the rocks that overhung the Yantic, 
and leisurely drawing up the speckled trout from its dark 
pools. The invading chief knew the habits of the Indians 
too well, not to be aware that this was a season of indolent 
repose to them, and that then, if ever, Uncas would be found 
off his guard. He must have known, too, the Mohegan re- 



120 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

treats, and places of resort, almost as well as they did them- 
selves. He intended, therefore, to steal upon Uncas slily, 
and take him by surprise. 

But whatever faults the Mohegan sachem had, a neglect 
to see after his own interests certainly did not constitute 
one of them. His spies were on duty night and day. A 
party of them, probably stationed upon a high hill within the 
present limits of Norwich, discovered the Narragansetts as 
they were crossing a ford in the Shetucket river, near where 
it unites itself with the Quinnebaug. This post was called 
Wawekus Hill, and a path led from it to the Little Plain, a 
spot hallowed as the burial place of the Mohegan sachems. 
I follow the account of Miss Caulkins, as I find it in her 
history of Norwich. " A cleft or ravine from this spot, once 
the bed of a rivulet, came out directly by the Indian landing- 
place at the foot of Yantic Falls, whence a canoe could 
glide in a few minutes to Shantok Point, five miles below, 
where Uncas had a fort. In this way the intelligence 
may have been communicated to the sachem with great 
rapidity." 

In whatever way the presence of this hostile force in his 
territory was detected and disclosed to Uncas, the chief lost 
no time in arming himself. Nor did he merely stand on the 
defensive. With about four hundred warriors, he was soon 
on the march to meet the enemy. He was not long in as- 
certaining that Miantinomoh had crossed the fords of the 
Yantic with his men, and that he was in hot pursuit of him. 
He was a mile and a half from the Yantic on the " Great 
Plain," when he received this intelligence. Immediately he 
drew up his warriors on a little eminence, and hastily in- 
formed them of his plan of conducting the battle. 

The Narragansetts were soon visible upon a neighboring 
hill, pressing on to meet him. Uncas sent forward a courier 
to demand a parley with Miantinomoh. He assented to it, 
and the two chiefs at once stepped forth to meet each other 
upon the plain, between the two armies, while Narragansetts 
and Mohegans alike stood still and awaited the result of the 



[1643.] UNCAS AND MIANTINOMOH. 121 

interview. As Uncas had sought the parley, so was he the 
first to open it, 

" You have some stout men with you," said he to his ad- 
versary, with well-dissembled magnanimity ; "so have I with 
me. It is a pity that such brave warriors should be killed in 
a private quarrel between you and me. Come like a man, 
as you profess to be, and let us fight it out. If you kill me, 
my men shall be yours ; if I kill you, your men shall be 
mine." 

" My men came to fight, and they shall fight," replied the 
haughty sachem of the Narragansetts. Uncas instantly fell 
flat upon the ground, a signal well understood by his war- 
riors, who in a breath discharged a whole flight of arrows 
into the ranks of the Narragansetts, who afforded the fairest 
possible mark for them, standing as they did in a listening 
attitude, with their eyes fixed upon the two sachems. 
Before the astonished Narragansetts could rally to defend 
themselves, the Mohegans, with Uncas at their head, gave 
the war-whoop, and rushed furiously upon them with their 
tomahawks.* 

In such a confused state of mind, a successful resistance 
was impossible. The out-witted invaders fled toward the 
fords of the Yantic. Their lamentations mingled wildly 
with the victorious shouts of the Mohegans, who pursued 
them across the Yantic, and, like greyhounds running with 
the game in sight, followed them as they sped over hills, 
covered with prickly bushes, along dangerous precipices, 
and across sharp ledges of rock, in their flight towards the 
fords of the Shetucket. Some of the Narragansetts were 
driven down these precipices and impaled as they fell upon 
the jagged corners of the rocks that bristled upon their sides. 
Others were shattered to atoms in the ravines below. 

Miantinomoh had on a corselet of mail that he had pro- 
cured of the English, and, encumbered by its weight, he ran 
with difficulty. It was probably a part of Uncas' stratagem 

* Trumbull, i. 131 ; Miss Caulkius' History of Norwich, 16. 



122 HISTORY OF COXXECTICUT. 

to take him alive. He was accordingly singled out by two 
swift-footed Mohegan captains, who followed him remorse- 
lessly until they finally came up with him near the river, 
and impeded his progress by throwing themselves against 
him. It was a desperate wager that he ran for, and, out of 
breath as he was, he rallied and resumed his flight only to 
be checked again and again by his tormentors, who were 
seeking to pander to the vanity of their chief by keeping the 
royal game at bay until he should arrive and claim the 
honors of the chase. 

As soon as Uncas came up and laid his hand on his 
shoulder, the flying sachem stopped, and without attempting 
to offer resistance, when he knew it would be hopeless, sat 
quietly down upon the ground, and looked his conqueror 
calmly in the face ; he did not deign to utter a single word. 

Uncas gave the whoop of victory. His warriors gathered 
around him, eager to look upon the features and figure of the 
noble captive, whose scornful eye regarded them with a 
frigid apathy. 

The battle, if it could be called one, was over. In the 
short space of twenty minutes, thirty Narragansett warriors 
had been slain, and besides Miantinomoh, many prisoners 
had been taken, among whom were his brother and two sons 
of his uncle, the venerable Canonicus. Uncas affected sur- 
prise at the conduct of his prisoner. " Had you taken me," 
said he, " I should have besought you for my life." Mianti- 
nomoh made no reply. 

Uncas now returned to his fort with his captives, whom 
he treated with kindness. The chief of so powerful a tribe 
was not an easy prize to keep, and Uncas hastened to Hart- 
ford, and committed him into the hands of the English. 
Samuel Gorton, of Rhode Island, had urged him to this step, 
hoping in this way to spare the prisoner's life. Uncas 
agreed to be governed by the decision of the English in the 
disposition to be made of the sachem, who was accordingly 
lodged in jail at Hartford until the Commissioners of the 
united colonies should meet in September, at Boston. 



[1643.] DEATH OF MIANTINOMOH, 123 

At last the day came when the question was discussed 
whether Miantinomoh should be put to death. The charges 
adduced against him were these ; that he had killed a Pequot 
who had testified against him in reference to his treatment 
of Uncas ; that he had again and again tried to take the life 
of Uncas by assassination and poison ; that he had broken 
his league in making war upon the Mohegans without first 
taking his appeal to the English ; and lastly, that he had con- 
ceived the horrible design of cutting off at a blow the whole 
English population, and had hired Mohawks and Indians of 
other tribes to assist him in its execution.* 

That Uncas imposed upon the too ready credulity of the 
commissioners by acting upon their fears in this delicate 
matter, and that several of these charges were sustained by 
the most wicked perjury, I cannot doubt. The story in most 
of its details, I believe to have been a Mohegan fabrication 
and backed up by the testimony of Mohegan witnesses. It 
seems that the commissioners questioned its truth, and 
hesitated to act upon it. At last it was referred to five 
principal clergymen of the several colonies, who, after a 
solemn, and I doubt not an honest debate, advised that sen- 
tence of death should be passed upon the accused. The com- 
missioners followed this unfortunate advice, and deputed Un- 
cas — a delightful privilege, and a good reward he no doubt 
esteemed it, of all his exertions in the premises — to execute 
the sentence. Uncas repaired to Hartford, took the cap- 
tive into his custody, and, accompanied by a file of English 
soldiers, who were sent to protect him from the vengeance 
of the Narragansetts, proceeded to execute the warrant. 
Two other Englishmen were also sent to remain by the 
prisoner, and see that no barbarities were practiced at the 
execution. Uncas took Miantinomoh, and led him to 
the place where he had been taken. When they had 
reached the fatal spot, the brother of Uncas, who was 

* Winthrop appears to give full credit to the testimony of the Mohegans, es- 
pecially in regard to a conspiracy against the English, and adds that " he was a 
turbulent and proud spirit, and would never be at rest." 



124 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

marching behind Miantinomoh, spHt his head with a hatchet 
and killed him at a blow. 

Notwithstanding the presence of the two Englishmen, 
Uncas cut a piece from the shoulder of his fallen enemy, 
and ate it in savage exultation. " It was the sweetest meat 
he ever ate," he said, and added complacently, that " it 
made his heart strong." 

Where the chief of the Narragansetts was taken captive, 
where he was killed, there, too, they dug his grave. The 
place is still memorable as the " Sachem's Plain." A tumu- 
lus of stones was heaped high above the mound, by the pious 
hands of his tribe, who, year after year, made their pilgrim- 
ages to the grave. Regularly they came in September, and 
celebrated the anniversary of their chief's death, adding 
each a stone to the pile, with lamentations and gestures 
expressive of the deepest sorrow. 

Such was the death, and such the obsequies of the sachem 
of the Narragansetts. 

Two oak trees also, long after marked the spot ; but even 
these stern monuments are gone, as well as the stones.* 
But the memory of the dead still lives, and tradition still 
fixes the locality where a great wrong was done by New 
England, under the sanction of a judicial decision. Had the 
commissioners, honest men as they were, viewed this act in 
the sober light of history, it never would have been perpe- 
trated. Says the historian of Norwich, whose keen sense 
of right will not allow her to sanction this deed, " The sen- 
tence of Miantinomoh is one of the most flagrant acts of in- 
justice that stands recorded against the English settlers. 
He had shown many acts of kindness towards the whites ; 
in all his intercourse with them he had evinced a noble and 
magnanimous spirit, and only seven years before his death, 

* Miss Caulkins, in her " History of Norwich," to which I have before 
adverted, says : " A citizen of Norwich, still living, N. S. Shipman, Esq., re- 
members this tumulus in his youth, a conspicuous object, standing large and 
high, between two solitary oak trees, about sixteen rods east of the old Provi- 
dence road." 



I 



[1643.] MIANTINOMOH. 125 

had received into the bosom of his country, Mason and his 
little band of soldiers from Hartford, and greatly assisted 
them in their conquest of the Pequots." For myself, were it 
possible, I would gladly come to a different conclusion, and 
whatever human fears, exercised at a time when their do- 
minion was most to be excused, whatever the evil influences 
of false or prejudiced testimony may do towards palliating 
the decree, I shall joyfully take into the account, to quaHfy 
but never to justify it. 



CHAPTER VII. 

PROGKESS OF SETTLEIIENT. TROUBLES WITH THE DUTCH AND INDIANS. 

The relations existing between the English colonies and 
the Dutch of New Netherlands, were never of a very ami- 
cable character. I do not propose to follow the example 
either of the Connecticut or New York historians, in com- 
plaining of the motives or conduct of either party. I can 
only say, that the claims set up by each, being inconsistent 
with those of the other, and the blood of different nations 
flowing in their veins, it was not to be expected that they 
should entertain amicable feelings towards each other. It 
must be admitted, that the Dutch navigators first visited the 
coast of Connecticut and Long Island. Adrian Block, a 
spirited, daring adventurer, in a little yacht, named the Rest- 
less, that he had built on the bank of the Hudson river, as 
early as 1614,* ventured to pass through Hell Gate, and sailed 
as far eastward as Cape Cod. He probably did not sail very 
near the main-land, until he had left New Haven to the 
westward of him, as he has left us no traces from which we 
can infer that he touched upon the coast of western Connec- 
ticut. He was, probably, the first European discoverer of 
Montauk Point, to which, he gave the name of Fisher's Hook, 
and of the little cluster of brilliants, sparkling upon the bosom 
of Long Island Sound — that inland sea, that annually drifts 
its smooth pebbles and pearly sands upon the Southern line 
of Connecticut. One of these he called Fisher's Island ;f an- 
other he named after himself, and it still bears the name of 

* O'Callaghan's New Netherlands, p. 72. 

t The histoi'ian of Long Island, (Thompson, p. 248,) states that this island was 
originally called Vischer's Island, and was probably so named by Block, from one 
of his companions. In the absence of any positive evidence on that point, the 
probabilities seem altogether to favor the generally received opinion, that the 
island was named from the chief occupation of its aboriginal inhabitants, or, from 
the quantities of fish with which the adjacent waters abounded. 



[1643.] THE DUTCH AND INDIANS. 127 

Block Island. He probably entered most of the principal 
harbors, and explored, to a greater or less distance, most of 
the navigable streams of the main-land. After that, for 
several years, the Dutch traders frequented the coast and 
islands, and carried on a brisk trade, with the Indians, in 
furs. In 1632, they bought of the natives, the neck of land 
at the mouth of the Connecticut river, afterwards, and still 
known as Saybrook, to which they gave the name of Kievit's 
Hook, from the number of birds, called by the Dutch, Kieveet, 
and by the English, Pewet, that they saw hovering about 
the spot.* On the 8th of June, 1633, they bought of the In- 
dians, the place known as Dutch Point, near Hartford. f 
The English, who soon after arrived, disputed their right to 
these places, and had covered the whole territory with their 
paper titles, before the Dutch took possession. In addition 
to this, as the Cabots had discovered the main-land to the 
east of the Connecticut coast, the English claimed, that this 
discovery took in all the Continent, to the " South Seas." 
It is foreign to my purpose to enter into a discussion, as to 
the rights of these claimants. One thing is certain, the Eng- 
lish, claiming by right of discovery, by grant from their mon- 
arch, and by subsequent purchase of the Indians, took, and 
have ever since, kept possession of most of the country then 
the subject of dispute ; and, as the Dutch and English have 
since been to a good degree, united in blood as well as in 
civil and social relations, in New York, it seems to me nar- 
row and provincial, to spend much time, at this late day, in 
vexing anew the question of original proprietorship. 

In 1643, a war broke out between the Dutch and the In- 
dians, that for awhile allayed all disputes between the Dutch 
and English. It fell out in the following manner : The gov- 
ernment of New Amsterdam had not been as careful as the 
colonies of Connecticut and New Haven, in enacting and 
enforcing sumptuary laws, and had allowed traders to sell the 
Indians strong liquors, more than was prudent, as the event 

* O'CaEaghan, p. 149. 

t This was the claim of the Dutch, aad I am wilhng to concede it. 



128 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

proved ; for an Indian, who had been subjected to the per- 
nicious influences of this traffic, in a fit of intoxication, killed 
one of the Dutch who belonged to the jurisdiction of New 
Amsterdam. The Dutch demanded that the murderer should 
be given up to them for punishment, but he was not to be 
found. The injured party now applied to the governor at 
New Amsterdam. But the governor did not think it pru- 
dent to interfere. About this time, the Mohawks fell upon 
the Indians, who lived near the Dutch settlements, and killed 
about thirty of them. Others fled to the Dutch authorities 
for protection. Marine, the Dutch captain, obtained leave 
of the governor to kill as many of these Indians as he could. 
His commission certainly proved to be no farce in his hands, 
for he acted under it with such zeal as to make an indiscrim- 
inate slaughter of seventy or eighty men, women, and chil- 
dren, at one stroke. The enraged Indians rallied to avenge 
themselves for this wholesale slaughter. In the spring of 
1643, the Indians began to retaliate. They set fire to the 
store-houses of their adversaries, drove their cattle into the 
barns, and then burned up both barns and cattle. The In- 
dians upon Long Island joined those upon the main-'and, and 
destroyed a great amount of property. 

In this situation, thp Dutch governor applied to Captain 
Underbill, of Stamfoia, for assistance, which so enraged 
Marine, that he pointed his pistol at his Excellency, and 
would have shot him but for the interference of a friend. 
One of Marine's tenants leveled his gun, loaded with ball, 
and deliberately discharged it at the governor, but missed 
him. A sentinel immediately avenged this rash act, by 
shooting the tenant dead upon the spot. 

The Dutch do not appear to have liked a war with the 
Indians as well as their executive functionary had anticipa- 
ted. Indeed, so indignant were they at the conduct of the 
governor, that he was obliged to keep a guard of fifty ^g- 
lishmen, constantly about him, to protect his person fron. .iie 
violence of his subjects. During the summer and fall, the 
Indians killed fifteen men of the Dutch, and for a time, al- 



,# 



[1643.] MURDER OF MRS. HUTCHIXSON. 129 

most broke up all the settlements between Stamford and 
New York. The horrors of this destructive war were felt 
for many miles along the coast.* 

The unfortunate Mrs. Hutchinson, who, when banished 
from Massachusetts for her religious opinions and factious 
conduct, had fled to Rhode Island, where she seems to have 
been as persuasive and bewitching as ever before, in 1642, 
and after the death of her husband, became tired of the 
sceptre of authority that she wielded over a very submissive 
people, and, as other monarchs had done before her, abdica- 
ted, and retired with her family and a few servants to a 
place between New Haven and New York — a remote refuge 
in the heart of the deep woods. Here, this mother of the 
Communitarian school of politics, that has made so much 
progress in America, surrounded by savages whom her bold 
heart scorned to fear, and whose friendship she cultivated 
with a faithfulness and assiduity deserving of a better fate, 
had erected her dwelling and begun to clear a few fields be- 
yond the supposed jurisdiction of the English. Perhaps this 
ambitious woman ' intended to establish here c new em- 
pire, more transcendental than Plato's fancied Arcadia — a 
spiritual superstructure upon temporal foundations, that was 
to lit\ its fantastic battlements high into mid-heaven. More 
probably, however, shocked with the illiberality of the age, " 
she meant to avert forever her visionary eye from what she 
considered the tyranny of her fellow-countrymen, and in re- 
tirement fix its abstracted gaze upon the wild speculations 
of an ideal philosophy. But an evil hand was upon her 
wherever she went. The children of the forest understood 
her divine mission no better than the General Court of Mas- 
sachusetts. They stole upon her settlement, murdered her, 
together with Mr. Cqilins, her son-in-law, and all her chil- 
dren who were with hr xcept a single daughter, who was 
carried into captivity. Her servants, and several of her 
neighbors, eighteen persons in all, shared her tragical fate.f 

* Savage's Winthrop, ii. 117. 

t Winthrop; also Hildreth, i. 288; Trumbul], i. 139. 



130 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

The Indians kept on killing the Dutch, and burning their 
houses after this unhappy affair, as before, and even extend- 
ed their depredations from the main-land to Long Island. 

The Dutch governor, in alarm, solicited the colony of 
New Haven to send troops to assist him, but owing to the 
construction put upon the articles of confederation, it was 
thought necessary to confine the action of the colony in be- 
half of the applicants, to the furnishing of such provisions as 
could be spared to them 

This war lasted for several years. Underbill was the fast 
friend of the Dutch government, and commanded the Dutch 
forces, with such men as he himself could furnish. But for 
him and his army of little more than one hundred men, the 
Dutch settlements must have been annihilated. He killed, 
before the close of the war, between four hundred and five 
hundred Indians.* The people of Stamford at last began to 
be alarmed at the contagious eftect produced by this pro- 
tracted struggle upon the Indians, who lived within their own 
borders. They wrote to the authorities at New Haven, beg- 
ging for protection, and added that if their houses should be 
burned, on account of the remissness of the other plantations, 
the negligent parties ought to sustain the loss.f 

The year 1644 was an eventful one. The Narragansetts 
appeared to be making ready to avenge the death of Mian- 
tinomoh. England, too, was now in a state of civil war. 

These troubles at home, and in the mother country, filled 
the minds of the colonists with forebodings. They appoint- 
ed days of fasting and prayer to avert the impending ca- 
lamities. The Indians of western Connecticut, who had at 
first conducted themselves with so much leniency towards 
the English planters, now showed all the treachery and cru- 
elty of their nature, by committing the most unprovoked mur- 
ders, as well of women and children as of men. Early in 
the year they wantonly killed a man, belonging to Massachu- 
setts, between Fairfield and Stamford. The murder was 

* Belknap, i. 50. t New Haven Colonial Records. 



[1644.] MUEDER BY THE INDIANS. 131 

soon made known, and the Indians promised that the author 
of it should be brought into Fairfield, and delivered up to 
justice, if Mr. Ludlow would appoint men to take him into 
custody. Mr. Ludlow sent a company of ten men for this 
purpose, but when the Indians came with the prisoner, with- 
in sight of the village, they set him at liberty, and he fled. 
Mr. Ludlow, with a view of striking terror into the minds 
of the Indians, took about a dozen of them captive, one of 
whom was a chief This enraged the savages so much, that 
they assembled in such numbers as to induce Mr. Ludlow to 
write to New Haven for advice. The Court counseled him 
to retain the captives, and prepared to send twenty men to 
his assistance. Meanwhile, four of the sachems visited the 
village, and promised to deliver up the murderer within a 
month, if the English would restore their friends. Accord- 
ingly they were set at liberty. A little while afterwards, an 
Indian went into a dwelling in Stamford, and, seizing a lath- 
ing hammer, which he found at hand, commenced a brutal 
attack upon the mistress of the house. With this deadly in- 
strument he struck her a violent blow upon her head, as, in 
obedience to the instincts of a mother, she stooped over the 
cradle to take up her infant child. She fell senseless. He 
then struck her twice with the edge of the instrument, which 
penetrated her skull. After that he plundered the house, and 
fled into the woods. The poor woman was restored to her 
senses long enough to give an intelligible account of the 
transaction, and to describe the dress and personal appear- 
ance of the Indian. But this return of reason was tempo- 
rary, and, although her wounds were healed, she soon fell in- 
to a state of blank idiocy. This outrage was followed up 
by others. The Indians refused to have any conference 
with the English, but, deserting their wigwams and corn, 
they assembled near the town, armed with guns, and threat- 
ened to destroy the whole settlement. In this critical con- 
dition, the towns of Fairfield and Stamford applied to New 
Haven and Connecticut for assistance. The wretch who 
had worse than murdered the woman at Stamford, was 



182 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

finally delivered up to justice. He was taken to New Ha- 
ven, and executed. " He sat erect and motionless, until his 
head was severed from his body."* 

Wethersfield was the fruitful mother of many towns. Her 
difficulties still continued, and by this time another company 
of the disaffected was ready to leave her borders. William 
Swaine was at the head of the party. They had long been 
ready to remove, and only waited until they could obtain a 
favorable place for a settlement. A few miles east of New 
Haven was a place, called by the Indians, Totoket, which 
had been purchased of the inhabitants as early as 1638, and 
in 1640 granted to Mr. Samuel Eaton, on condition that he 
would found a settlement there. That gentleman failed to 
comply with the stipulations of the grant, and in 1644 the 
same territory was conveyed to Mr. Swaine and his friends, 
who, on their part, agreed to remove there and establish a 
town that was to be under the jurisdiction of New Haven. 
Soon after this conveyance was made, the Rev. Abraham 
Pierson, of South Hampton, upon Long Island, with a part 
of his congregation, sailed for Totoket Harbor, and made 
common cause with Mr. Swaine's party. To this delightful 
town, overlooking two clusters of lilliputian islands, and fan- 
ned by cool sea-breezes, the inhabitants gave the solid Eng- 
lish name of Branford.f 

On the 5th of September, 1644, the commissioners of the 
United Colonies met at Hartford. A claim was set up 
by those who represented Massachusetts, that they had a 
right of precedence in subscribing all treaties and other doc- 
uments requiring the signatures of that body, as they, in be- 
half of their colony, had first signed the articles of confeder- 
ation. After some debate, this claim was denied as a right, 
but yielded through courtesy. All the other commissioners 
were to follow in the order in which they had signed those 
articles. J 

From north to south, the Indians were, during the year 

* New Haven Colony Records ; Winthrop, Trumbull, &c. 
t Barber's Conn. Ilis. Coll., p. 198. i Journal of the Commissioners. 




(P (OIL. » 'WfTTTTMTT.TTAlMT B ©TUCBJld^g 




(m 




[1644.] TROUBLES WITH THE INDIANS. 133 

1644, unusually troublesome. In Virginia, whole settlements 
were annihilated. In some villages the inhabitants were all 
murdered at one fell stroke. It was believed that the New 
England Indians, and those tribes living farther south, were 
combined to destroy the whole white population. The Nar- 
ragansetts were particularly restive. They encroached alike 
upon Connecticut and Massachusetts. The old quarrel be- 
tween the Narragansetts and Mohegans waxed hot and 
threatening. It was necessary to take some steps to quell it. 
The commissioners, therefore, sent their old interpreter, 
Thomas Stanton, with Mr. Willet, to visit the sachems of 
both these nations, and inform them that the commissioners 
were then in session at Hartford, and if they would appear be- 
fore that body, and state their grievances, an impartial hearing 
should be had ; and that all proper steps should be taken to 
reconcile their differences. These gentlemen were instructed 
to offer the sachems of the two tribes, or those who might 
go in their stead, a safe passage to and from Hartford, and 
to enjoin on them and their people to keep the peace, not 
only during these negotiations, but after they had returned 
to their respective countries. 

The Narragansetts sent one of their principal chiefs, and Un- 
cas went in behalf of the Mohegans. One principal theme of 
complaint alleged, on the part of the Narragansetts was, that 
Uncas had taken a ransom for Miantinomoh, and after his 
death, had refused to return it. This Uncas stoutly denied 
under oath. Other evidence was heard, both in support of 
the charge and in behalf of the defense. The hearing re- 
sulted in favor of Uncas. 

The Narragansett deputation agreed to abide by the de- 
cision, and to make no war upon Uncas, until after the next 
year's planting-time — and after that, before commencing hos- 
tilities, that they would give the governors of Massachusetts 
and Connecticut thirty days notice. This stipulation was to 
be binding also upon the Nihanticks, as well as upon their 
own tribe.* 

* See Trumbull, i. 145, 146. 



134: HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

About this time, four sachems from Monhausett, upon 
Long Island, came over in canoes with their companions, 
and humbly waited upon the commissioners with a petition. 
They stated that they and the other Indians upon the island, 
had paid tribute to the English ever since the Pequot war, 
and that they had never done any harm, either to the Eng- 
lish or the Dutch, but were the friends of both. They begged 
that they might have a certificate given them of this friendly 
relationship, and that the United Colonies would take them 
under their protection. The commissioners gave them the 
certificate, and assured them of protection, as long as they 
remained at peace with the English, and kept aloof from all 
the quarrels with the Indians. With this certificate — a cab- 
alistic charm to them — the simple-hearted tributaries took their 
leave, deeply impressed with the superiority of the English. 

During the same session, the claim of Massachusetts 
to a part of the Pequot country was renewed. Col. Fen- 
wick interposed in behalf of himself and those whose inter- 
ests he represented, and begged that the consideration of this 
matter might be postponed, until the Lord Say and Seal, and 
the other noblemen, knights, and gentlemen, who were named 
as grantees in the Warwick patent, and, who claimed this 
very territory, could have an opportunity to be heard. The 
commissioners decided that a convenient time ought to be 
given to those noble claimants to plead their title to the 
land in controversy. 

Massachusetts, also, renewed her claim to Westfield, while 
Col. Fenwick, on the other hand, insisted that it was the prop- 
erty of the same grantees. It was finally decreed that West- 
field, with all its houses and lands, should be under the juris- 
diction of Massachusetts, until it was proved to which colony 
the plantation belonged ; and that all lands, not exceeding 
two thousands acres, should belong to the purchasers. 

South Hampton, upon Long Island, was this year taken 
under the jurisdiction of Connecticut. This town had been 
settled in 1640 by about one hundred families from Lynn.* 

* Trumbull, i. 148. 



[1645.] THE FIRST TAEIFF. 135 

When the General Court of Connecticut met in the preced- 
ing April, a committee was appointed to treat with Col. Fen- 
wick in relation to a purchase of " Saybrook Fort, and of 
all guns, buildings, and lands in the colony, which he and 
the lords and gentlemen interested in the Patent of Connec- 
ticut might claim." On the 5th of December, 1644, the ne- 
gotiation was completed by articles of agreement, signed by 
Col. Fenwick and the committee appointed by the General 
Court of Connecticut. On the part of himself and the other 
grantees, Col. Fenwick made over to Connecticut, the fort at 
Saybrook and its appurtenances ; also all the lands on the Con- 
necticut river ! Such lands as were not sold, were to be 
given out by a committee of five, of whom Col. Fenwick was 
to be one. Col. Fenwick also agreed that all the lands from 
Narragansett river to Saybrook fort should fall under the 
jurisdiction of Connecticut, if it should come into his power 
so to dispose of it. On the other hand, the committee who 
represented Connecticut, agreed that Col. Fenwick should 
enjoy all the houses belonging to the fort for a period of ten 
years, and that a duty should be paid to him for a like term 
on corn, biscuit, bacon, and cattle, which should be exported 
from the mouth of the river. The General Court ratified 
this agreement in February, 1645, and passed an act to reg- 
ulate the duty stipulated in the articles of agreement.* Pro- 
vision was also made that a memorandum of the landina: of 
each cargo passing beyond the river's mouth should be made 
of all commodities, subject to this duty, and delivered to Col. 
Fenwick, as a basis, from which to determine how much 
tribute was due him. This was the first tariff ever sanc- 
tioned by the people of Connecticut. 

The duty was as follows : 

1st. Each bushel of corn of all sorts, or meal, that shall 
pass out of the river's mouth, shall pay two pence per bushel. 

2d. Every hundred biscuit that shall in like manner pass 
out of the river's mouth, shall pay sixpence. 

3d. Each milch cow, and mare, of three years or upwards, 

* J. H. Trumbull's Colonial Records, i. 119, &e. 



136 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

within any of the towns or farms upon the river, shall pay 
twelve pence per annum, during the aforesaid term. 

4th. Each hog or sow, that is killed by any particular per- 
son, within the limits of the river and the jurisdiction afore- 
said, to be improved either for his own particular use, or to 
make market of, shall in like manner, pay twelve pence per 
annum. 

5th. Each hogshead of beaver, traded within the limits of 
the river, shall pay two pence. Only, it is provided, that in 
case the general trade with the Indians, now in agitation, 
proceed, this tax upon beaver, mentioned in this, and the 
foregoing articles, shall fail. 

It proved to be no insignificant sum that the colony paid 
for this purchase, and has been estimated at sixteen hundred 
pounds sterling.* 

The General Court now took vigorous measures to put 
this important fortification in good repair. A tax of two 
hundred pounds was levied on the towns for this purpose. 
The Court also addressed a letter to Col. Fenwick, soliciting 
him to act as the agent of the colony, and sail for England, 
with a view of procuring an enlargement of the patent, "and 
to furnish other advantages for the country." 

In the midst of these stirring events, died George Wyllys, 
Esquire, third governor of Connecticut, who, had there been 
left no written memorial of his worth, could not have failed 
of a traditionary fame more enviable, though less glaring, 
than that of the proudest military conqueror. He came of 
an old and honorable family, and was, before he left Eng- 
land, the possessor of an elegant mansion and a valuable es- 
tate in land, situated in Knapton, in the county of Warwick. 
Few English gentlemen had less occasion to become an ad- 
venturer ; none had less cause to seek his fortune in the 
trackless labyrinths of the American woods. His birth, his 
wealth, his intellectual endowments, enriched by the most re- 
fined culture, entitled him, in the best of English neighbor- 
hoods, to the confidence and friendship of that order of Eng- 

* See Trumbull, i. 150. 



[1645.] GOVERNOR WYLLYS. 137 

lish nobility, whom Burke has signalized as the "best society 
in the world." So that, whatever may be said of others, it 
cannot truthfully be said of Wyllys, that he sought to better 
his fortunes by emigration. He knew well, that as the world 
understands the term, he could not improve his condition, 
and that to change it, was to make it worse. His eye was 
not to be dazzled with the surfaces of things. With the 
earnestness that characterizes all noble natures, he sought 
after the truth, and, by the gradually increasing Hght of religi- 
ous liberty, saw in that early dawn, the shadows of super- 
stition beginning to grow pale and dim. He loved the tra- 
ditions, the institutions, the customs, immemorial as the green 
old oaks and flowering hedges of his native island. Yet, 
like John Hampden, Herbert Pelham and Sir Harry Vane, 
though he lingered over the past with a loving step, 
his gaze was still fixed on the future. He was one 
of the few men of that harsh, intolerant age, whose 
large natures — incapable of bigotry, whether lurking un- 
der the folds of the surplice, or haunting the secret 
chambers of the conventicle — soared above the poisonous 
atmosphere of political strifes, and panted for a liberty, 
religious and civil, that should strike its roots in a deep, 
fresh soil, and bear those " golden apples " that in later 
years, requiting the culture of such hands as his, were to 
blush upon the branches of the Hesperian tree. Perhaps, too, 
he foresaw, and was not unwilling to avoid for himself and 
his children, the baleful fires of that bloody conflict, so soon 
to light up the English coast — the struggle between the old 
and the new, between prerogative and progress, of which all 
Europe was to "ring from side to side " — a struggle destruc- 
tive as the whirlwind, yet tending to purify the moral atmos- 
phere, as all great convulsions of the elements are said to 
vitalize the air. 

In 1636, Mr. Wyllys sent over his steward, William Gib- 
bons, with twenty men, to purchase and prepare for him, in 
Hartford, an estate suitable to his rank, erect a house, and 
make preparations for the reception of himself and his fami- 



138 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

ly. Two years after this, he bade adieu to the home of his 
childhood, and sailed for America. He arrived in Connecti- 
cut early enough to give to the framers of the Constitution 
of 1639, the benefit of his sound judgment and elevated 
views, and was elected a magistrate annually under it, from 
the time when the freemen adopted it by acclamation, to the 
day of his death. In 1641, he was elected deputy governor, 
and in 1642 he was made governor of Connecticut. 

He led a calm, pure life, far enough elevated above the 
level of his contemporaries to point them where to look for 
the ideal of human excellence, yet near enough to stretch 
forth a benevolent hand to those whose vision was less keen, 
and whose feeble steps faltered as they ascended the rugged 
hill. Peace to his venerable dust, which, without a monu- 
ment, sleeps near that of Hooker, in the old cemetry of 
Hartford, guarded by the piety of the thousands who inhabit 
the city, and who have succeeded to the noblest inheritance 
in the world — a spotless public life. 

The Charter Oak Place, where he lived and died, with all 
its thrilling historical associations, has none that should tempt 
the lover of the heroic past more eagerly to visit its shades, 
than that it was the home of Wyllys. 

In the summer of 1645, the Narragansett Indians again 
violated their treaty with the English, in commencing hostil- 
ities against Uncas.* They went into the heart of the Mo- 
hegan country, and attacked Uncas at his fort. They killed 
his men and threatened to annihilate both him and his tribe. 
So bent were they on the destruction of their old enemies, 
that Connecticut and New Haven were obliged to send each 
a detachment of soldiers, to keep the Mohegan country from 
being overrun by the invaders. 

Governor Winthrop, in alarm, called a meeting of the 
commissioners to convene at Boston, on the 28th of June. 
As soon as that body had assembled, they sent couriers into 

* See Bancroft, i. 211, who claims that the "temporary truce" had ex- 
pired when the Narragansetts marched after Uncas. The action of the commis- 
Bioners, however, seems to forbid such a conclusion. 



[1645.] gibbons' expedition. 139 

the territories of the contending tribes, proposing that their 
sachems should repair to Boston, and refer their causes of 
quarrel to the decision of the commissioners, as had been 
done before. The sachems at first seemed disposed to listen 
favorably to the proposal, but at last declared they would 
neither go nor send. The Narragansett chiefs were highly 
excited. They insulted the messengers, and said very rough 
things of the English. One of them said " he would kill their 
cattle and pile them in heaps, and that an Englishman should 
no sooner step beyond his door than the Indians would kill 
him ; that whoever began war he would continue it, and 
nothing would satisfy him but the head of Uncas." 

Affairs now assumed such a threatening attitude, that 
Roger Williams, who was usually the apologist of the Indians 
and especially of the Narragansetts, wrote to the commis- 
sioners, that an Indian war was impending. After a careful 
consultation, the commissioners made a formal proclama- 
tion of war, and ordered that three hundred men should be 
forthwith levied, and placed under the command of Maj. 
Edward Gibbons. Capt. Mason had the immediate com- 
mand of the Connecticut and New Haven forces. Hum- 
phrey Atherton, with forty men, was sent forward with all 
haste to meet Mason at IMohegan, and place himself under 
his direction, the better to defend Uncas until the whole 
army should unite their strength under Maj. Gibbons. 

Gibbons was ordered not only to protect Uncas, but to in- 
vade the country of the N'arragansetts and Nihanticks, and 
cut off their supplies. He was authorized, however, to offer 
them peace, and to make a treaty with them, should they be 
disposed to fall in with any reasonable proposals. If they 
were disposed to fight, he was to give them battle. If they 
would neither fight nor come to any amicable terms, but on 
the other hand fled before him, he was ordered to build forts 
in the territory of both these hostile tribes, and there ac- 
cumulate the corn belonging to them gathered from far and 
near.* 

* Records of the Commissioners. 



140 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Before hostilities had been decided upon by the English, 
the Narragansetts had sent a present to governor Win- 
throp at Boston, asking for peace with the colonies, but 
begging the privilege of fighting with Uncas, and avenging 
the death of Miantinomoh. The governor did not accept 
this present, but allowed it to be left in his keeping. The 
commissioners sent it back with a message to Canonicus, 
Pessacus, and the other sachems of the Narragansetts and 
Nihanticks, that they would not accept their gift, nor permit 
them to be at peace until they had atoned for their past of- 
fenses, and given- pledges for their future good behavior. 
The messengers who were entrusted with this dehcate com- 
mission soon returned to Boston, with tidings that Pessacus, 
the great war-chief of the Narragansetts, and other sachems, 
were coming to treat with the commissioners for a peace. 

The Indian ambassadors, with Pessacus at their head, soon 
arrived at Bosion, in great state, attended by a large retinue, 
and presented themselves before the commmissioners. They 
denied that they had been guilty of violating their faith in 
breakino; the most solemn treaties, and urged their old claim 
of the ransom alleged to have been taken by Uncas, with 
astonishing pertinacity, if it was indeed a false claim. They 
offered to bind themselves again, to refrain from waging war 
with their hated enemy, until the next planting-time. 

The commissioners assured them that it was idle to talk 
of such a thing — that they would be trifled with no longer — 
that the time had come for an ultimate decision, either for 
lasting peace or bloody war, and it was better that they should 
at once understand each other. They said it was useless for 
the Indians to pretend that they had kept faith with the col- 
onies, as proofs of their perfidy were too glaring and abund- 
ant to be truthfully met, and that falsehoods could stand 
them in stead no longer. 

The Indians finally acknowledged their treachery in refer- 
ence to the treaties, and one of the principal chiefs took a 
stick, and humbly presented it to the commissioners, as a 
symbol of submission, and a token that he only waited for 



[1645.] SETTLEMENT OF FAEMINGTOJST. 141 

the English to dictate the terms of a new treaty, at their 
own discretion. 

The commissioners decided that the new treaty should 
be substantially upon the following terms : that the Indians 
should pay to them two hundred fathom of white wampum ; 
restore to Uncas all the captives and canoes that they had 
taken from him ; that they would maintain perpetual peace 
with the English, and with all their allies, and that they 
would give hostages for the faithful performance of all these 
stipulations. With much reluctance the Indians finally 
signed the articles embracing these conditions.* But fear 
impelled them to do it, as they knew that English troops 
were now in the country, and ready to enforce even more 
stringent demands. 

As early as 1640, some of the most enterprising citizens 
of Hartford commenced a settlement at a place about ten 
miles west of the city, upon the alluvial meadows of the 
Tunxis river. They gave to their little neighborhood the name 
of the brimming river, that swept past their log-houses, and 
enlivened the long summer days, as it wound through the 
meadows, where haymakers kept it company. It was not 
incorporated until 1645, when it was called Farmington. 
Almost all the inhabitants were planters. The township 
was not far from fifteen miles square. f This territory has 
been, from time to time, divided between the mother town 
and its offshoots. Out of it have sprung the towns of South- 
ington, Bei'lin, Bristol, Burlington and Avon. The pioneers 
who purchased this tract of the original proprietors, the 
Tunxis Indians, and begun the plantation, were among the 
best families of Hartford, and their descendants have main- 
tained to an unusual degree their marked traits of character. 

In 1646, when the commissioners of the united colonies 
met at New Haven, the old difficulties between the colonies 
of New Haven and Connecticut on the one part, and the 
Dutch at New Amsterdam on the other, were presented to 
their consideration. It appears that the Dutch governor, 

* Bancroft, i. 313. + Pease and Niles' Gazetteer. 



142 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Kieft, had written a spirited letter to governor Eaton, of 
New Haven, in which he took occasion to reassert the 
claims of the States General to the coast of Connecticut in 
very positive terms. He charged the English with violating 
ancient treaties existing between the two nations, under 
which they respectively claimed, and with having acted in 
defiance as well of the law of nations as of natural justice. 
He called them "breakers of the peace, and disturbers of 
the public tranquillity," and threatened them with war if they 
did not give up the places belonging to his jurisdiction that 
they had usurped, and make amends for the losses that his 
government had sustained on account of their encroach- 
ments. 

Governor Eaton made answer that the colony of New 
Haven had never dispossessed the Dutch of any of their 
lands, or disturbed them in the enjoyment of any of their 
rights. He ended by proposing to leave all differences to be 
arbitrated by unbiased men, either in Europe or America. 

Connecticut also made complaint against the Dutch of 
Good Hope, charging them with acting in opposition to the 
authorities of the colony, and especially in harboring an In- 
dian woman, who was both a fugitive from justice and a run- 
away servant of one of the citizens of Hartford.* 

The commissioners of the united colonies, in reference to 
these alleged wrongs, wrote a letter to governor Kieft, not 
much calculated 1 should think, to conciliate him. This letter 
recites at length all the claims of the two colonies, Connecti- 
cut and New Haven, and alludes in no very gentle terms, 
to the behavior of the dignitary to whom it was addressed. 
It is never pleasant to be told of one's faults, and the aver- 
sion that we all feel to it, is much enhanced when the censor 

* For a more particular account of this controversy, the reader is referred to 
page 253, of that beautiful work entitled " Hartford in the Olden Time," by 
ScAEVA — an author who seems first to have entertained the thought that our local 
histories could be invested with some other interest than that of frigid details, and 
who never forgets what the Greeks taught the world, that a muse presides over 
history as well as song. His work is substantially a history of Connecticut, dur- 
ing the first few years of her existence. 



[1646.] GOVEENOR KIEFT. 143 

is supposed to be our enemy. This epistle certainly lacked 
one characteristic of a modern diplomatic paper. It could 
not be said to say one thing and mean another. 

Another letter was ordered to be written and sent to the 
same functionary, complaining that the Dutch traders were 
badly in arrears in their accounts with the English, and re- 
fused to pay, and that he had aided his subjects in withhold- 
ing payment. 

At the purport of these two letters, his excellency of New 
Netherlands was greatly incensed. He met all the charges 
contained in them with a flat denial, couched in the very 
strongest terms that he could frame, which he embraced in 
two corresponding documents, and sent to New Haven by 
the messenger who had been employed by the commissioners. 
The affair of the Indian woman appeared to inflame him 
most, for he honored that with a special traverse. With re- 
gard to the other allegations, he contented himself with say- 
ing that they were untrue, and that he would submit them to 
the arbitrament of nobody in Europe or America. The 
mildest thing that he would do, unless he joiei with better 
treatment from the English, was to avenge himself by an ap- 
peal to arms. In his excited state of mind, he used a very 
bold figure of speech, likening the commissioners to " eagles 
that soar aloft and despise the little fly." He denied the right 
of the English to any part of the coast of Connecticut, and 
especially to New Haven, the very name of which he ignored, 
adhering to the old Dutch name of " Red Mount." " We 
protest," he said in conclusion, " against all your commis- 
sioners met at Red Moimt, as against breakers of the common 
league, and also infringers of the rights of the lords, the 
states, our superiors, in that you have dared without our ex- 
press and special consent, to hold your general meeting within 
the limits of New Netherlands."* 

To these letters the commissioners made a very curt reply, 
the substance of which was, that the exaggerated strain of his 
correspondence was no more than was to be expected from him. 



* Letter of Kieft on the Records of the United Colonies. 



144 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

The Connecticut river Indians, this year, were unusually- 
troublesome. Sequasson, one of their chiefs, conceived the 
design of murdering governor Haynes, governor Hopkins, 
and Mr. Whiting, one of the magistrates. He hired a Wa- 
ranoke Indian to execute the plot. The consideration to be 
paid was a number of wampum-girdles. But after he had 
received the price of blood, he went deliberately to Hartford, 
and betrayed his employer. The Windsor Indians at about 
the same time did the inhabitants of Windsor much damage, 
by burning up large quantities of their personal property. 
The magistrates issued a warrant, and arrested the Indian 
whom they supposed to be the author of this mischief, but 
the Indians rescued him from the hands of the officers with 
violence.* 

The commissioners in session at New Haven, sent a mes- 
sage to Sequasson, citing him to appear before them, and 
make answer to the charsies asrainst him. But the cunning 

(DO O 

savage thought it best to keep out of harm's way. The 
Indians were subject to strange paroxysms of mischief, 
that would break out suddenly and take possession of 
them like physical diseases. In reading the best authen- 
ticated accounts of their behavior, the descriptions that we 
meet with in the New Testament of those who were under 
the influence of devils, are constantly forced upon the mind. 
On such occasions, their passions led them whithersoever 
they would. 

The IMohawks, now that the Pequots were exterminated, 
had the field to themselves, and spent their time in waging 
war with the eastern tribes, and collecting tribute from them. 
They had sagacity enough to keep on friendly terms with 
the English, and confined their depredations to the Indians. 
Their tax-gatlierers were so punctual in their annual visita- 
tions, that those who paid them tribute knew when to expect 
them. They knew, too, that an armed force usually followed 
these leeches, to see that none of the subjects departed from 
their allegiance. 

* Trumbull, i. 158, 159. 



THE PHANTOM SHIP. 145 

Some years after Milford was settled by the English, a 
company of Mohawks came within the borders of the town, 
and secreted themselves in a swamp, where they awaited an 
opportunity of making an attack upon the Milford Indians. 
Some Englishmen saw the Mohawks, and were friendly 
enough to inform their swarthy neighbors of their danger. 
They immediately rallied in great numbers, raised the war- 
whoop, and rushing suddenly upon the Mohawks, gained a 
complete victory. Among the prisoners was a stout Mo- 
hawk warrior, whom the conquerors decided to kill by fam- 
ine and torture. They stripped him naked, and having tied 
him to a stake, left him in the tall grass of the salt meadows, 
to be eaten up by the mosquitoes. An Englishman, named 
Hine, who found the poor wretch in this deplorable condition, 
shocked at this barbarous mode of torture, cut the thongs 
from his limbs, and set him at liberty. He then invited him 
to his house, gave him food, and helped him to escape. This 
kind act was never forgotten by the Mohawks. They 
treated the English of Milford ever after with marked 
civility, and did many kind and friendly acts, that testified 
their gratitude towards their deliverer and his family.* 

It has been said that the principal inhabitants of New Ha- 
ven were originally engaged in commerce and merchandise. 
They soon found that the unpeopled wastes of New Eng- 
land offered little opportunity for them to pursue their old 
occupations. The estates that they had brought with them, 
declined in value, and left them disappointed and compara- 
tively helpless. Their settlement at Delaware had proved 
a heavy burden to them. Besides, they had long waited in 
vain for the arrival of certain wealthy gentlemen, who had 
given them assurance that they would soon join them and 
share their enterprise. At length, despairing of any such re- 
lief, and conscious that some new steps must be taken to re- 
trieve their sinking fortunes, some of their most enterprising 
merchants united their resources to build a ship, of one hun- 
dred and fifty tons burden, and fit her out for England. They 

* Lambert. 
10 



146 HISTORY OF COISTNECTICUT. 

freighted her with furs, corn, and plate, almost all their little 
stock of merchantable wealth. She had also seventy souls 
on board, including Gregson, Lamberton, and some other 
men of note in the colony. 

It was in the stark month of January, and the harbor was 
frozen over so firmly that the citizens were obliged to cut a 
way for her through the ice, with saws, for three miles, 
before she was free to float in the water. Mr. Davenport, 
and many others who were to stay behind, went out upon 
the ice and bade her adieu. As he stretched his hands to- 
wards heaven in prayer, the reverend man said, doubtingly, 
" Lord, if it be thy pleasure to bury these our friends, in the 
bottom of the sea, they are thine — save them !" 

They watched her gallant sails and trembling keel, till 
their eyes were blinded with tears. Ships arrived one after 
another from England, but they brought no tidings to the 
people of New Haven, of the bark that bore from their sight 
so much that was dear to them. Months passed, each dropping 
its heavy plummet deeper than its predecessor, into the abyss 
of mystery and gloom that shrouded the fate of the ship. At 
last inquiries ceased to be whispered by the wife, the father, 
the friend ; and the heart spoke its agonized meaning only in 
the quivering lip and the fixed eye. Still they waited for 
tidings, and perhaps beneath the calm exterior of despair, there 
trembled a pulse of hope, but this too, died. Then succeeded 
another long period of silence. 

In November, 1647, those who embarked in the ill-starred 
vessel were treated as deceased persons, and their estates 
went through the due course of administration. Not quite 
two years and a half after the missing ship sailed, one pleas- 
ant afternoon in June, as the sumbeams lit up the clouds that 
still lingered — the lurid curtains of a thunder storm that had 
spent its volleys in the heavens — there was seen on the level 
line of the horizon, hovering over the harbor, the figure of a 
three-masted ship. Shadowy at first, and without shroud or 
tackle, but gradually taking on a fearful distinctness, until 
her full sails swelled in the summer breeze ; and on her up- 



[1649.] THE PHANTOM SHIP. 147 

per deck there stood the semblance of a man, a solitary form. 
Though the wind blew from the north, she made her course 
bravely against it for a full half hour, until the little children 
ran and cried as she drew near, " There's a brave ship." 
The weird bark was the exact counterpart of the lost one. 
For many minutes she remained, until the anxious and the 
curious were assembled, to welcome her home. And there 
upon her deck, its left hand pressed against its side, and its 
right hand grasping a sword, stood the mournful shape, point- 
ing silently towards the sea. Finally, a cloud of smoke 
arose, faint at first, but darkening as it wreathed its sombre 
folds around the Phantom Ship and the armed spectre, till 
both were swallowed up from mortal sight ! 

It has not come down to us what was the name of the ves- 
sel. It is a wild legend, and is not without a strange interest. 
The reader must settle for himself the question, whether it is 
fabulous or true.* 

During the year 1649, the chiefs of the Narragansetts and 
Nihanticks were again cited to appear before the commis- 
sioners at Boston, to answer for not having kept their last 
treaty with the English. Ninigret obeyed the summons, 
but Pessacus sent in an excuse. He would be very glad to 
go to Boston, but he was too unwell to undertake such a 
journey. He further pleaded the terms of the late treaty 
were very hard upon his tribe, and that they could not com- 
ply with them. He claimed that they were void, too, from 
having been obtained by duress, while he was in Boston, and 
an armed force of Englishmen marching against his defense- 
less country. However, he sent two deputies to represent 
him, and prepared to be bound by whatever Ninigret should 
stipulate. Ninigret pleaded the cause of the two nations 
with great dignity and eloquence, and the parties at last 
agreed upon terms of adjustment satisfactory to all concerned. 

The tax levied upon the towns soon after the purchase of 

* The Rev. James Pierpont, of New Haven, who was a firm believer In the 
miraculous nature of the apparition, wrote an interesting account of it at the request 
of Cotton Mather, who published it in his Magnalia. 



148 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT, 

Saybrook fort, was not raised by the inhabitants of Spring- 
field. The General Court of Massachusetts denied the right 
of Connecticut to tax this town, as it was claimed to be 
within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. The commis- 
sioners refused at first to make any order in the matter, as it 
was a very delicate one, and had not been particularly re- 
ferred to them by one of the claimants, but suggested that 
the money to be expended upon the fort was for the benefit 
of all the towns upon the river. After the action of the 
General Court of Massachusetts, and after the resolutions 
had been passed, the commissioners, upon a full hearing, de- 
cided the question as well as they could by ordering, that in- 
asmuch as Springfield enjoyed the benefit of the fort, she 
" should pay the impost of two pence per bushel for corn, and 
a penny on the pound for beaver ;" but that the parties dis- 
puting the right to lay the impost, might have the privilege 
afterwards to show reasons against it. 

During this very session, John Winthrop, of Pequot, (now 
New London,) laid claim to the whole country of the West- 
ern Nihanticks, embracing a large part of the present town 
of Lyme, by virtue both of a deed of purchase and a deed of 
gift from the Indians. Mr. Winthrop did not pretend that 
he had any paper title, but offered abundant evidence of a 
fair transfer by parol. To these claims, the commissioners 
who represented Connecticut made answer, that Mr. Win- 
throp's pretended purchase was without date, had no fixed 
boundaries, and that, for aught that appeared, the grantor 
had himself no title to the granted premises ; that the con- 
tract was a parol one, and that at the best it was but a 
vague, loose way of transferring an estate in lands ; while on 
the other hand, Connecticut owned the territory by right of 
conquest. The decision was, at the request of Connecticut, 
postponed to a later day, and the claim was never afterwards 
presented by Mr. Winthrop. 

Not far from this time — at what precise date is not known, 
but probably during the year 1648 — died at Saybrook the 
Lady Alice Boteler, since and still known as Lady Fen- 



LADY FENWICK. 149 

wick.* She was a daughter of Sir Edward Apsley, and 
married, first, Sir John Boteler, and after his death became 
the wife of Col. George Fenwick, with whom she sailed for 
America. Not only is the date of her decease unknown, 
but not a circumstance alluding to so interesting a fact has 
come down to us. Near the remains of the old fort, proba- 
bly within its limits as it was first built, and close upon the 
river-bank, where the plaintive murmurs of the Connecticut 
blend with the heavy moanings of the sea — upon supporters 
that seem to stoop with the weight of their burden — rests a 
table of grey sandstone, bearing a scroll without an in- 
scription or a name. Yet to me, as I looked upon it, without 
a tree to droop over it in summer, or screen it from the fierce 
winter winds — without a flower to symbolize the beauty 
and loveliness of the high-born sleeper — no epitaph could have 
spoken with such eloquence as the silence of the monument 
and the desolation of the spot. It spoke to me, as it may 
have done to others, of the crowning excellence and glory of a 
woman's love, who could give up the attractions of her proud 
English home, the peerless circles wherein she moved and 
constituted a chief fascination, to follow her husband to this 

* Lady Fenwick was a daughter of Sir Edward Apsley, of Thackham. Sir 
Edward married Eliza, daughter of Edward Elmes, of Lyford, in the county of 
Northampton, and had children, (1,) Elizabeth, who married Sir Albert Norton 
knight, and secretary of state; (2,) Edward, living at Tliackham in 1634, men- 
tioned in Col. Fenwick's will as the " Uncle " of his daughters ; (3,) Alice, who 
married, first, Sir John Boteler, and afterwards George Fenwick ; and (4,) Ann, 
who married Rlatthew Caldecott, of Sherington, in the county of Sussex. Sir John 
Boteler, Lady Fenwick's first husband, was the eldest son of Sir Oliver Boteler, 
of Teston, who was knighted by James 1st, in 1604. Sir John died in liis father's 
hfe time. Sir John's younger brother, William, inherited Sir Oliver's estate, and 
was created a baronet by Charles 1st, in 1641. He espoused the cause of the king 
in the civil war, and was killed at Cropedy Bridge in June, 1644. Tlie wife of Col. 
Fenwick appears always to have retained the name and title given her by her first 
husband. The receipt given for her monument in 1679, describes it as the 
" Tomb Stone of the Lady Alice Boteler, late of Saybrook." (See Saybrook 
Records.) I am indebted to the accomplished editor of the " Colonial Records of 
Connecticut " for the facts above recited, as I am for many other favors of a like 
character. I shall add nothing to his reputation, though I shall do myself a great 
pleasure, when I say, that I do not think there is a more accurate and at the same 
time philosophical antiquarian in New England. 



150 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

desolate peninsula, where the humble houses of wood within 
the inclosure of the fort, opened their forbidding doors with 
a grim welcome that must have chilled her heart. Here she 
lingered in obscurity till she died. Perhaps when her hus- 
band was away at Hartford, or Boston, as he often was, at- 
tending to the interests of Connecticut, as she looked off up- 
on the blue waters, her eye was dimmed with tears of disap- 
pointment as she in vain sought the long expected sail that 
was to waft that noble coterie of lords and ladies, knights, 
and gentlemen, to Saybrook, whither they had promised to 
flee from the civic strifes that beset them at home. But that 
sail was only seen in her dreams, and the towers of the new 
city that was to have sprung up under the plastic touch of 
the patentees of Connecticut, were lost with the other fan- 
tasies of the night in the glimmering moon-beams that fell 
upon her startled eyelids through the frosted window-panes. 
She died in her place of voluntary exile. Two hundred 
years have rolled away. The shrill cry of the plover now as 
then pierces the ear as it flies over the spot. But the rude 
fort, with its walls of wood and earth, is gone. The Connec- 
ticut swarms with vessels of every description, filled with a 
free population that need no cannon at the mouth of the 
river, as in that iron age, to guard them from violence. How 
much can be learned from an old, solitary tomb ! The dead 
need no monument, but are themseves a monument of the 
"dead old time." Their names, when uttered, are vital as 
their ashes shall be on the morning of the resurrection. But 
let not the sons of a state, in whose bosom sleeps the dust of 
Alice Apsley, forget that the forbidding aspect of her tomb, 
though it dishonors not her, disgraces them ; and if she has 
left no other claim upon their affectionate remembrance, let 
them bear in mind that she was at least the wife of Fenwick ! 



CHAPTER VIII. 



FOFNDmO OP NEW LONDON. 



As early as the spring of 1646, under the auspices of the 
General Court of Massachusetts, Mr. John Winthrop, jun., 
and a few others, had already begun to plant the fields lying 
upon Pequot Harbor, and found a settlement there. Mr. 
Thomas Peters,* a clergyman, was associated with Mr. 
Winthrop, and these two gentlemen were entrusted with the 
authority of framing a form of civil government, and ad- 
ministering it, until further orders. f This territory was for 
a long time debated ground, as has been before stated : Con- 
necticut claiming both by virtue of a grant and by right of 
conquest, and Massachusetts asserting a right to it as her 
share of the conquered country of the Pequots. Mr. Peters 
did not stay long enough in the new settlement to lend much 
aid to his associate, for in the fall of 1646 he embarked for 
England, and never returned to America. Mr. Winthrop 
did not remove his family from Boston until the fall of 1646, 
when he sailed with his wife and a part of his children, to 
the country over which he claimed jurisdiction. His brother, 
Dean Winthrop, accompanied him. They had a very rough 
and tedious passage. They spent that winter upon Fisher's 
Island. In the spring of 1647, Mr. Winthrop built a house 
upon the main-land at Pequot, and removed his whole family 
thither. The place was also called Nameaugs. This was the 
first beginning of the now flourishing city of New London. 
Although the plantation was commenced under the protec- 
tion of Massachusetts, yet after the action of the commis- 
sioners upon the question of jurisdiction in July 1647, the 

* This gentleman was a brother of the celebrated Hugh Peters, and was him- 
self one of the ejected Puritan divines of Cornwall, England. He appears to 
have been for some time chaplain to Mr. Fenwick, and to the garrison at 
Saybrook. 

t New London Records. See Miss Caulkins' History, p. 45. 



152 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

dominion over it was conceded to belong to Connecticut ; 
and in the following September, the court gave Mr. Winthrop 
a commission " to execute justice" according to the laws of 
Connecticut, " and the rules of righteousness." * 

At the session of the General Court in May 1649, John 
Winthrop, Esquire, with Thomas Minor and Samuel Lathrop 
as assistants, were authorized to hold a court in the town, 
with jurisdiction over " all differences among the inhabitants 
under the value of forty shillings. "f To encourage the en- 
terprise of the first settlers of New London, and to induce 
new adventurers to take up their abode there, the court at 
the same session granted the inhabitants exemption from 
taxation for the period of three years. The court also ad- 
vised that the town should be called " Fair Harbor." But 
the planters claimed the privilege of naming the place, and 
finally, after some changes and debates, hit upon the name 
of New London, which was sanctioned by the General 
Court. 

The old subject of alarm and debate, the perfidy of the 
Narragansett and Nihantick Indians, could not long remain 
quiet. These Indians were resolved not to pay the wam- 
pum that they had agreed again and again to do, and had 
hired the Pocomtocks and Mohawks to unite with them 
in exterminatinsT the hated Mohesrans. The Narraffan- 

o o o 

setts and Nihanticks secreted their women and children in 
swamps, and raised an army of eight hundred warriors, who 
were to meet their allies, the Mohawks and the Pocom- 
tocks, in or near the Mohegan country. The governor and 
council sent a deputation, at the head of whom was Thomas 
Stanton, to Pocomtock. When they arrived there they 
found the Indians of the place in arms and awaiting the ar- 
rival of the Mohawks. J The Indians confessed their error, 
but said they had been hired by the Narragansetts. It was 
represented to Stanton, that the Mohawks had four hundred 
guns, and plenty of ammunition. This must have been a 

* J. Hammond Triunbull, Colonial Records, i. 157. + lb. i. 186. 
i Trumbull, i. 171. 



[1649.] INDIAN DEPREDATIONS. 153 

very exaggerated account of their resources. It is not likely 
that the whole tribe were possessed of one-fourth part that 
number of guns. Stanton told the Indians that they must 
not march into the Mohegan territory, and that the English 
would defend Uncas against all his enemies, and would 
avenge all his wrongs. This well-timed threat had the efFeCjt 
to keep the Pocomtocks at home, and as the Mohawks (if in- 
deed they had ever intended to aid in the enterprise,) were 
detained in their own country by some troubles that they 
had with the French, the Narragansetts dared not take it 
upon themselves to chastise the Mohegans, and so the affair 
was dropped for awhile. But the Narragansetts did not by 
any means remain idle. They made depredations upon the 
people of Rhode Island, broke into their houses, stole their 
goods, and insulted the planters in every conceivable way. 
At Warwick they killed an hundred cattle, and threatened 
the inhabitants with the most cruel violence. In their per- 
plexity and alarm, the authorities of Rhode Island applied to 
the commissioners to be admitted into the confederacy. 
That grave body, then in session at Plymouth, made answer 
in substance, that the whole region occupied by the petition- 
ers was included in the Plymouth patent, and of right ought 
to be under the jurisdiction of that colony ; that if the people 
of Rhode Island would consent to relinquish their claims to 
an independent existence, and be merged in the colony of 
New Plymouth, their interests would be tenderly cared for ; 
but they refused to treat with them as a distinct common- 
wealth.* However, the commissioners sent a new deputation 
to the Narragansetts and Nihanticks, complaining among 
other things of the outrages that they had committed in 
Rhode Island, whose people had never wronged them, and 
warning the sachems to keep their men under better 
discipline. 

During the same session, the old affair of the impost for 
the repair of the fort at Saybrook came up for further dis- 
cussion. Massachusetts complained of the former decision 

* Records of the United Colonies. 



154 HISTORY OF CONXECTICUT. 

of the commissioners, and the General Court of that colony 
had appointed a committee to draw up an answer in writing 
to the arguments and reasons of Governor Hopkins in be- 
half of Connecticut at the previous session. Whatever the 
merits of the case might be, this answer was certainly a 
very able one. It alleged that Springfield was under no 
more obligation to pay for the repairs of the fort, than any 
other town not within the limits of Connecticut ; that if 
that town derived any benefit from the fort, it was an inci- 
dental one, and was no greater than that resulting from the 
same source to any of the towns of New Haven colony 
that lay along the coast. It urged that New Haven or 
Stamford might with as much propriety be taxed for this 
object as Springfield ; and added, that the former decision of 
the commissioners ouijht to be reviewed, as it was carried 
by the votes of the members from New Haven colony, who 
were interested parties ; and also because it was induced in 
part by the alleged provisions of the Connecticut patent, a 
document which was not produced, as it ought to have 
been if any claim of title was set up under it.* 

The committee in behalf of Massachusetts appear to have 
thought it advisable to let it be known how powerful their 
commonwealth was, and how little dependent it was upon 
the other colonies, for in connection with this argument 
they took occasion to intimate that Massachusetts could do 
as she liked about complying with the order of the commis- 
sioners in this matter without any breach of faith, and com- 
plained of the inequality of the representation in a body 
where such small powers as New Haven and New Plymouth 
had an equal vote with Massachusetts. The committee also 
said that this impost was a bone of contention that was 
likely " to interrupt their happy union and brotherly love." 
They greatly feared that unless this stumbling-block could 
be removed, they might be tempted " to help themselves in 
some other way." 

In behalf of Connecticut, Roger Ludlow and governor 

* See Trumbull, i. 172, 173. 



[1649.] DEBATE OF THE COMMISSIONERS. 155 

Hopkins replied, that the arguments and proofs that had 
been the basis of the order at the former session, had not 
been met by any thing that was set forth in the remons- 
trance of Massachusetts, and that they were indeed un- 
answerable. After alluding briefly to what had been said in 
relation to the old claims of Massachusetts in 1638, with 
regard to the exemption from impost of the plantations under 
their alleged jurisdiction, and the change of circumstances 
which ten years had brought about, — and after disposing 
summarily of the question of a priority of right so strongly 
urged by the other party, they go on to speak with some 
sensitiveness of the charge made against the commissioners 
of founding their decree, either in whole or in part, upon the 
supposed contents of the Connecticut patent, a paper that 
they had never seen. These gentlemen argued that such a 
charge was unreasonable, and without foundation. That a 
copy of this patent was certainly brought forward at the 
time the confederation was established ; that its contents 
were publicly known, and that the gentlemen of Massachu- 
setts were the last persons in the world who could plead 
ignorance of the fact that it had recently been owned by the 
committee of parliament, and that it had as much vitality 
and power over the territory embraced within the boundaries 
named in it, as had the patents of Massachusetts and Ply- 
mouth over their own. To make good what they said, they 
backed it up by producing a copy of the Connecticut patent 
which governor Hopkins, who had compared it with the 
original, offered to make oath to as authentic. 

In regard to the appeal made by Massachusetts to the 
sympathies and fears of the commissioners, that the impost 
was inexpedient and threatened the existence of the amicable 
relations and brotherly love that had so long bound the four 
colonies together, they answered with a very delicate severi- 
ty, that it was the wish of Connecticut, that in all the doings 
of the confederation, " truth and peace might embrace each 
other " — that it was impossible for them to see how the set- 
ting forth of the claims of truth and righteousness could be 



\ 



156 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

the means of breaking up the subsisting relations of peace 
and brotherly love. 

Upon a full hearing, the commissioners again decided in 
favor of Connecticut. 

Previous to this, on the 27th of May, 1647, his Excellency, 
Peter Stuyvesant, governor of New Netherlands, arrived at 
Manhattan and entered upon the duties of his office.* The 
commissioners, in the name of the united colonies of New 
England, hastened to address to him a congratulatory letter 
upon his accession to the government. In this letter they 
also took occasion to inform him that the Dutch traders had 
been in the habit of selling firearms and ammunition to the 
Indians, and sometimes within the boundaries of the Eng- 
lish plantations, and begged him to put an end to this ill- 
judged and dangerous traffic. They also made complaint of 
the imposts laid by the Dutch, which they said, fettered the 
freedom of trade. The letter also complained of seizures 
made by the Dutch of English vessels and goods. 

His Excellency of New Netherlands made no answer to 
these complaints, and it will appear from what followed that 
he gave very little heed to them. Perhaps he thought, 
though I am not aware that he has left us any record of his 
reflections on this subject, that congratulation and remon- 
strance might have afforded materials for two distinct com- 
munications. Be that as it may, he evidently disregarded 
the complaints, for in the year 1648 he caused a vessel be- 
longing to Mr. Westerhouse, a Dutch merchant and planter 
of New Haven, to be seized while she was riding at anchor in 
the harbor.f Westerhouse stated his grievance to the com- 
missioners, who espoused his cause as that of the united col- 
onies, and at once wrote a letter to governor Stuyvesant, ex- 
pressing in the strongest terms their horror of this insult of- 
fered to the Enghsh colonies, and wrong done to an innocent 
private citizen. They again took occasion to "protest 
against the claim of the Dutch to all the lands, rivers, and 
streams from Cape Henlopen to Cape Cod," while they re- 

* See Brodhead, i. 433. t Trumbull, i. 175 ; Brodliead, i. 496. 



[1649.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH GOV. STUYVESANT. 157 

iterated the oft-assailed right of the united colonies to all 
these plantations and domains held by the double title of 
grant from the British crown, and of purchase from the In- 
dians, the native proprietors of the soil. 

The seizure of this ship from one of their own harbors 
they represented to be an atrocious and unparalleled outrage, 
which they neither could nor would suffer to pass without 
some redress. They thought the letters that he had written 
to them and to the governors of Massachusetts and New 
Haven, were couched in a phraseology so mysterious and 
equivocal that it was impossible to understand them. They 
begged him to be less oracular and more explicit. They in- 
sisted upon the necessity of a meeting between him and them 
for the purpose of coming to a more full understanding. Un- 
til there was some such adjustment, they said the Dutch mer- 
chants and marines should enjoy no privileges in the New 
England harbors or plantations, either of anchoring, search- 
ing or seizing, more than the English did at Manhattan ; and 
if upon search they should find arms or ammunition on board, 
any Dutch ship, which were designed to be sold to the In- 
dians within the borders of the united colonies, they would 
seize them "until further inquiry and satisfaction should be 
made." The epistle closed in a very high tone, from which 
the go^vernor of New Netherlands might readily infer that 
unless he saw the error of his ways, it would soon be neces- 
sary for him to vindicate them by force of arms.* 

The murder of Mr. John Whitmore, in 1648, at Stam- 
ford, and the discovery of an old murder of Mr. Cope and 
a part of his crew upon Long Island, both of which were 
committed by the Indians, occasioned much uneasiness in 
the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven. 

In the year 1647, the old fort at Saybrook, built by Gardiner, 
under the direction of Winthrop, by some unfortunate ac- 
cident took fire and was burned to ashes. In May, 1649, 
the General Court ordered " that there shall be a dwelling- 
house erected at Saybrook about the middle of the new fort, 

* Record of the United Colonies. 



158 HISTORY OF COXXECTICUT. 

at the charge and for the service of the commonwealth."* 
The building of a new fort was also prosecuted with vigor. 
During the same year, 1649, the Indians upon Long Island 
committed at Southold some terrible murders. The Narra- 
gansetts and Nihanticks were by no means inactive. They 
had remained quiet as long as they could restrain their dia- 
bolical passions ; but at last their hatred of Uncas broke 
forth. They had been thwarted so often in their attempts to 
make war upon the Mohegan chief, that they now deter- 
mined to assassinate him. With this view they confided 
their secret to a trusty Indian, who undertook, for a reward, 
to accomplish the murder. The assassin went on board a 
vessel in the Thames, where Uncas was, and stabbed him in 
the breast. He meant without doubt to kill him, and for a 
long time it was thought that the chief would die of the 
wound. But he at last recovered, and that too in due time 
to present himself before the commissioners, exhibit his scars, 
tell over again his old story about the Mohawks, reiterate his 
complaints against his enemies, whom he meekly represented 
as thirsting for innocent blood, and beg that as he had never 
deserted the English in times of peril, they would requite his 
friendly services by extending to him their protection. All 
that he appeared to want was justice, and he certainly had 
much occasion to congratulate himself upon his good luck, 
that his prayers in this respect were not answered. How- 
ever, it cannot be denied that he told the truth when he said 
that he had always been faithful to the English. Ninigret 
was cited to appear and clear himself of the charge preferred 
against him by Uncas, that he and Pessacus had hired the as- 
sassin. It is probable that this charge was substantially true, 
as the wretched murderer himself, we are told, gave the same 
account of the matter. At any rate, it was thought by the 
commissioners that the Nihantick sachem made but a meagre 
defense. He was dismissed with the assurance that unless 
he immediately liquidated the old arrearages, the English 
would leave him to his fate. 

* J. H. Trumbull, i. 187, 



[1649.] RUMORED ALLIANCE WITH THE PEQUOTS. 159 

About this time the colonies were thrown into a convul- 
sion by a rumor, the author of which it is not difficult to di- 
vine, that a son or brother of Sassacus was negotiating an 
alliance with Ninigret, and was about to marry his daughter, 
and that the Narragansetts and Nihanticks were contriving 
to gather up the scattered Pequots, and place them under 
the dominion of this bugbear chief This story is so shallow 
and incredible to us of the present day, that it seems aston- 
ishing that it should have gained any credence. But the 
crafty politician who devised it was a shrewd judge of char- 
acter, and knew that the very word Pequot had not ceased 
to be terrible to the English. This fabrication was intend- 
ed to have a double edge. Uncas knew that the Pequots 
who had been assigned to his keeping had more than two 
years before been induced by his tyranny to revolt from him, 
and set up for themselves. He also knew these Indians had 
in 1647, presented to the English a memorial, such as they 
were able to frame, against his outrageous treatment of them, 
which recited a list of exactions and cruelties ; and he also 
knew that he was guilty of all that they charged upon him. 
The English, slow to believe their favorite and ally to be 
such an unprincipled wretch as he was represented, were at 
last, upon frequent repetition of the accusation, beginning to 
lose confidence in him. What so likely, in this pressing ex- 
igency, to divert the attention of the English from himself 
and fix it where he most desired it to remain, as an appeal 
to the fears of his allies, by putting in circulation this well- 
contrived story of the anticipated alliance of the Pequots, 
his accusers, with the Nihanticks and Narragansetts, who 
were his old enemies ? It would serve the double purpose of 
lulling the growing suspicions against himself, and increasing 
those already existing against his rivals. The pi'ospects held 
out to him by this story were so flattering that he could not 
resist them. 

Meanwhile his evil deeds were sent forth upon every 
wind. The insulted Pequots repeated their charges in the 
ears of the English, until their frigid incredulity gradually 



160 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

dissolved. The Pequots affirmed that since they had been 
put under his protection, he had exacted from them payments 
of wampum forty several times. They farther asserted that 
upon the death of one of his children, the hypocritical father 
made his squaw presents to comfort her, and compelled them 
to give her wampum by way of adding to this sxtraordinary 
consolation. Whereupon Uncas expressed great satisfaction, 
and gave his word that he would ever after treat them 
with the same consideration as if they were of Mohegan 
blood ; and that, in violation of this promise, he had cheated 
them and wronged them in a variety of ways. One of the 
Pequot sachems in particular, insisted that Uncas had taken 
away his wife from him and conducted towards her as if she 
had been his own. Others testified that he had wounded and 
tortured some of the Pequots, and robbed the whole of 
them. This memorial was presented in behalf of more than 
sixty Pequots, Uncas of course denied all the allegations 
set forth in it, but they were so thoroughly substantiated that 
the commissioners could not help believing them. They re- 
buked Uncas, ordered him to give up the wife of the chief 
whom he had stolen, make the Pequots good for all the dam- 
ages he had done them, and pay a fine of one hundred fathom 
of wampum. He was also directed to take back his abused 
subjects without inflicting any punishment upon them for 
complaining of his cruelties towards them. But the poor 
creatures refused to comply with this order, although they 
were obedient to the English in all other respects. Year 
after year, as the commissioners met, they presented their 
humble petition, in which they feelingly alluded to their con- 
dition as a conquered people, and owned that their tribe had 
met a just fate ; but they begged to be delivered from the 
rapacity and overbearing insolence of Uncas. They said 
that whatever might have been the fault of their tribe, they 
at least had killed no Englishmen, and that Wequash, the 
guide, who had led Mason to the fort, had given them his 
word that if they would fly from the Pequot country, and do 
the colonies no injury, they should be safe from harm. 



. [1650.] ATHERTON'S EXPEDITION. 161 

These plaintive supplications at last had the effect to mitigate 
the condition of the petitioners. This relief was in part due 
to the interposition of Mr. Winthrop, who knew Uncas too 
well to take his part. There was never any cordiality be- 
tween tb -t gentleman and the Mohegan chief. 

This year, (1649,) the affair of the impost was again 
brought before the commissioners, and decided as before in 
favor of Connecticut. The members from Massachusetts 
then produced an order of their General Court, imposing a 
duty upon " all goods belonging to any of the inhabitants of 
Plymouth, Connecticut or New Haven, imported within the 
castle, or exported from any part of the bay." This was done 
by way of retaliating upon Connecticut, and upon the other 
colonies, for voting in behalf of the Connecticut impost. It 
was an act which the historians of Massachusetts have never 
attempted to justify, and was unworthy of the high charac- 
ter of that noble colony — a character so steadily sustained 
from that day to the present. ' 

On the 5th of September, 1650, the commissioners again 

met at Ilartfoid. Governor Hopkins of Connecticut presided. 

There was no want of topics to occupy their attention. The 

Narragansetts still neglected to produce the wampum that 

they had long been obligated to pay. The gallant Captain 

Humphrey Atherton, of Massachusetts, was sent with twenty 

men under his command to enforce the payment. He was 

authorized, if the arrearages were not paid, to seize upon 

such property as he could find to an amount equal in value 

to the sum due, or to take possession of the person of Pessa- 

cus or of his children, and bring them away as hostages, to 

insure the final liquidation of this troublesome account. 

With such a liberal commission, Atherton, with his handful 

of men, marched into the heart of the Narragansett country. 

He had no difficulty in procuring an interview with Pessa- 

cus, but the sachem immediately began to practice his old 

arts of diplomacy. He advanced a number of propositions 

with provisional clauses and conditions involved, which, in 

the language of the logicians, he proceeded to argue in a cir- 

11 



162 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

cle, arriving at the same point whence he started, without 
stating any thing in an expHcit manner. He kept the Eng- 
lish aloof from his person during this oration, evidently " talk- 
ing against time," while his warriors were gathering around 
him in formidable numbers. The high-spirited Atherton, 
who probably never knew what fear was, could control his 
temper no longer. He marched to the door of the chief's 
wigwam, and there leaving his men, he rushed into the wig- 
wam, and in a very unparliamentary way, it must be admit- 
ted, seized his majesty of Narragansett by the hair, in the 
midst of his oration, and drafrsfino; him forth from the circle 
of his attendants, pointed a loaded pistol at his head, and 
told him he would blow his brains out if he dared to offer 
the least resistance. Arrested, probably, in the very flush 
of some lofty metaphor, like a falcon struck down by an ar- 
row while in the swiftest turnings of his airy flight, the 
chief in astonishment and alarm ended the negotiations at 
once, by counting out the wampum which he had sworn that 
he was not possessed of, and paying it over to Atherton, who 
thereupon set him at liberty.* 

Taking leave of Pessacus, the English ambassador hastened 
to pay a visit to Ninigret. He was not long in finding him. 
As he came on business, and not for the sake of enjoying the 
luxuries of Indian hospitality, Atherton proceeded at once to 
state to the Nihantick sachem the object of his mission, and 
to tell him some very wholesome though unwelcome truths. 
He charged upon him the intended alliance of his family with 
the Pequot chief, and with his manoeuvres to possess him- 
self of the conquered country. In the course of the conver- 
sation he demanded of him where the proposed bridegroom 
was to be found, and what number of warriors he had with 
him. He insisted on having direct answers to all his ques- 
tions, as he said he wanted to make a faithful report of all 
that passed between them, to the commissioners. What in- 
formation he gleaned in regard to the alliance, I am unable 
to say. His visit was not without its effect, and served the 
* Trumbull, i. 188. 



[1650.] 



GOV. STUYTESANT VISITS HARTFORD. 163 



purpose for which it was intended, that of intimidating the 
JVihanticks. 

This expedition of Atherton is one of the boldest enter- 
prises recorded in our annals. It has also the merit of being 
entirely bloodless ; and has such a happy mixture in it of 
tragedy and comedy, that it leaves a very pleasant effect 
upon the mind. The conduct of Atherton gives us, in a few 
bold, dashing strokes, a complete portraiture of his character. 

All this time affairs were getting worse between the con- 
federacy of New England and Peter Stuyvesant, governor of 
New Netherlands. At last, the Dutch governor with a view 
of bringing about some arrangement between the contend- 
ing powers, both in reference to commerce and jurisdiction, 
thought it advisable to accept the invitation sometime be- 
fore tendered him by the commissioners, and take a journey 
to Hartford, where that body was then in session. He ar- 
rived at Hartford on the 11th of September, 1650. He came 
in a style befitting his rank. He was invited, as he had often 
been before, to attend the meetings of the commissioners. 
With much stateliness he declined to accept the invitation, 
and expressed a wish that the business should be transacted 
through the medium of written correspondence. This form- 
ality of putting upon paper what could be so much more 
readily expressed by oral conference, did not accord with the 
practical usages adopted by the other party ; but as his Ex- 
cellency was inflexible, they thought it best to yield the point 
as one of mere etiquette. 

The Dutch governor having prevailed as to the ??ianner of 
conducting the negotiation, he may have thought he should 
succeed equally well as to the matter. 

He commenced this diplomatic correspondence by a state 
paper that struck at the root of the controversy at once. 
He complained of the encroachments of the English upon the 
rights of the West India company, and of the injuries done 
to the Dutch, especially by the colonies of Connecticut and 
New Haven. He asserted that the Dutch had gn unques- 
tionable title to all the lands upon the Connecticut river, hav- 



16-i HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

ing bought them of the aboriginal proprietors, before the 
EngHsh, or any other power had laid claim to them. He 
demanded a surrender of those lands, and a suitable remuner- 
ation for the use of them. He entered his protest against the 
act, which excluded the Dutch from the English colonies for 
the purposes of trade. He spoke with indignation of the cus- 
tom, which he said prevailed among the English traffickers, 
of selling goods to the Indians at such ruinously low prices, 
that other nations could not compete with them. He ex- 
pressed a willingness to come to some understanding in rela- 
tion to the boundaries of the respective claimants. Worse 
than all, and most likely to widen the breach between the 
English and his government, he dated this unlucky letter at 
New Netherlands. The commissioners could with difficulty 
suppress their contempt at his arrogant pretensions. They 
replied that they would not treat with him unless he dated 
his epistles at some other place than New Netherlands. In 
answer to this objection, he said, that if they would not date 
at Hartford, he would not date at New Netherlands. He 
suggested, by way of compromise, that they should both date 
at Connecticut. The English made answer that he might 
date at Connecticut if he liked, but as for themselves they 
should date at Hartford. Very reluctantly governor Stuyves- 
ant was compelled to give way. He found that the English 
were as fastidious and captious as he in relation to forms, 
when those forms might be afterwards converted into sub- 
stantive evidence as descriptive of a part of the territory in 
dispute, and as an acknowledgment either of title or juris- 
diction. 

Having settled this preliminary question, the English were 
not backward in stating their title to Connecticut, by posses- 
sion, purchase, and discovery. They added, that the honor- 
able West India company had set up so many claims, and 
couched them in terms so ambiguous, that the commissioners 
were not well advised either as to the extent of country that 
the Dutch supposed themselves entitled to, or as to the title 
by which it was held. After a great deal of mutual accusa- 



[1650.] NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE DUTCH. 165 

tion and recrimination, involving a minute recital of all the 
quarrels by sea and land that had sprung up between the two 
powers, it was agreed that the whole matter, including the 
boundary question, should be submitted to arbitration. Sev- 
eral days were spent, and numerous and tedious were the 
letters that passed between them, before they came to this 
result. 

The commissioners chose Bradstreet of Boston, and Prince 
of Plymouth ; and his Excellency of New Amsterdam, chose 
Thomas Willet and George Baxter, as arbitrators, with full 
power to settle all differences.* 

On the 19th of September, the arbitrators made and pub- 
lished an award, that appears to have been as satisfactory to 
the parties concerned as could have been anticipated. It is 
a state paper of very great ability and conciseness. It very 
adroitly states at the outset, that most of the alleged griev- 
ances complained of by Connecticut, and New Haven colonies, 
had happened during the administration of governor Kieft, 
the predecessor of governor Stuyvesant, and that they post- 
pone a hearing upon all these questions until the Dutch 
governor can find time to prepare his answer. 

They pass over the controversy growing out of the seizure 
of "Mr.-Westerhouse's vessel in a manner equally acceptable 
to governor Stuyvesant, by finding that the affair happened 
partly through a mistake of his secretary, and partly through 
the default of Westerhouse in trading at New Haven with- 
out a license ; and that the seizure was by no means ordered 
or made by way of asserting title in the Dutch to New Ha- 
ven. It was then awarded that the colony of New Haven 
should rest satisfied with this explanation, and not claim any 
remuneration for the same. 

Having thus bestowed the shell of the nut, these worthy 
gentlemen proceeded to dispose of the boundary question, 
which was the kernel, in the following words : 

" T. That upon Long Island, a line run from the wester- 
most part of Oyster Bay, and so a straight and direct line to 

* Records of the United Colonies. 



166 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

the sea, shall be the bounds betwixt the English and Dutch 
there, the easterly to belong to the English, and the wester- 
most to the Dutch. 

" II. The bounds upon the main to begin at the west side 
of Greenwich bay, being about four miles from Stamford, 
and so to run a northerly line, twenty miles up into the 
country, and after, as it shall be agreed, by the two govern- 
ments of the Dutch and New Haven, provided the said line 
come not within ten miles of Hudson's river. And it is 
agreed, that the Dutch shall not, at any time hereafter, build 
any house or habitation within six miles of the said line ; the 
inhabitants of Greenwich to remain (till further considera- 
tion thereof be had,) under the government of the Dutch. 

" III. The Dutch shall hold and enjoy all the lands in 
Hartford that, they are actually possessed of, known and 
set out by certain marks and bounds, and all the remain- 
der of the said land, on both sides of Connecticut river, to be 
and remain to the English there. 

"And it is agreed, that the aforesaid bounds and limits, 
both upon the island and main, shall be observed and 
kept inviolable, both by the English of the united colonies, 
and all the Dutch nation, without any encroachment or mo- 
lestation, until a full and final determination be agreed upon 
in Europe, by the mutual consent of the two states of Eng- 
land and Holland. 

" And in testimony of our joint consent to the several fore- 
going conclusions, we have hereunto set our hands this 19th 
day of September, Anno Domini, 1650. 

Simon Bradstreet, 
Thomas Prince, 
Thomas Willet, 
George Baxter." 

In the month of June, 1650, the General Court of Connec- 
ticut granted to Nathan Ely, Richard Olmsted, and other in- 
habitants of Hartford, liberty to remove to Norwalk and 
commence a plantation there, provided " they attend a due 
payment of their proportions in all the public charges, with 



[1651.] SETTLEMENT OF NORWALK. 167 

a ready observation of the other wholesome orders of the 
country."* 

As early as 1640, Roger Ludlow had purchased of the In- 
dians the eastern part of the town. Captain Patrick had 
also procured the title to the central part of it. The better 
evidence appears to be, that a few bold planters had taken 
possession soon after»these grants were made, and had con- 
tinued to retain it until the arrival of the company under 
Mr. Ely and Mr. Olmsted. Of this fact, however, there is no 
record proof. 

Although leave was granted to the petitioners in 1650, 
they did not remove to Norwalk until 1651. The western 
part of the town was deeded to them by Runkinheage, on 
the 15th of February. It is quite probable from the date of 
this instrument, that the whole company removed in Janu- 
ary, or the early part of February, and it is not unlikely that 
the tradition is true, that a part of them spent the entire win- 
ter there. As appears by a contract made by Roger Lud- 
low, Esquire, with this company, under date of June 19, 
1650, the principal families, aside from the two gentlemen 
already mentioned, bore the names of Webb, Richards, Mar- 
vin, Seymour, Spencer, Hales, Roscoe, Graves, Holloway, and 
Church. By this agreement the company became bound to 
mow the grass on the meadows, and stack the hay in the sum- 
mer of 1650, and as early as the spring of 1651 to break up the 
ground in Norwalk, preparatory to planting during the next 
summer. This agreement gives additional authority to the 
legend that a portion of the inhabitants spent the winter of 
1650 on the spot. The Indians would probably have burned 
up the haystacks before spring, had not some of the farmers 
been there to guard them. It is very probable, too, that the 
hay was most of it fed out to the cattle during that winter. 
This contract with Ludlow was of the nature of a quit-claim 
deed of that gentleman's original purchase for the consideration 
of fifteen pounds, the same price that he had paid for it ten 
years before, with the interest from the date of his purchase, 

* J. H. TrumbuU, i. 210. 



168 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

and a reservation of a convenient lot, to be laid out for Mr. 
Ludlow's sons. The name of this charming place, with its 
rich lands, its excellent harbor, its unrivaled fishing-grounds, 
and its most attractive river, was derived from the tribe 
of Indians who inhabited it — the Norwalks, or Nor- 
wakes. No town in Connecticut has more salubrious sea- 
breezes or a climate more healthful anfl invigorating. The 
Rev. Thomas Hanford, the first clergyman, began to preach 
there in 1652, soon after which a church was formed and he 
was ordained as its regular pastor.* 

Some time during the year 1651, the place called Matta- 
besett began to be inhabited by the English. This settle- 
ment had long been in contemplation, probably some time 
before October, 1646, as we find by our record of the doings 
of the General Court, that on the 30th of that month a gen- 
tleman, bearing the name of Phelps, was designated to "join 
a committee for the planting of Mattabesett." The com- 
mittee made very slow progress in the settlement of the 
place, but it is quite probable that a few hardy men, who 
stood less in awe of Sowheag than the other Englishmen 
did, soon after this began to remove into the immediate 
neighborliood of that formidable sachem ; and that little 
parties dropped down the river in boats from Hartford and 
Wethersfield, from time to time, until the fall of 1650, when 
the number of planters who had established themselves there, 
seemed to call upon the General Court for their order bear- 
ing date the 11th of September, that "Mattabesett should be 
a town," and should proceed to make choice of a constable. 

Owing to the want of early records, some obscurity hangs 
over the birth and infancy of this town. It is certain that in 
the fall of 1652, it was represented in the General Court, and 
that in the fall of 1653, its name of Mattabesett was changed 
to that of Middletown, which it has since kept with honor- 
able distinction. It is not surprising that a fierce tribe of 
Indians should for so long a time have kept the inhabitants 

* The Rev. Edwin Hall, D. D., of ISTorvvalk, is the author of a valuable His- 
tory of that town, published in 1847. It comprises 320 pages. 



[1651.] MIDDLETOWK l69 

of Hartford and Wethersfield, as well as those who ulti- 
mately came from Massachusetts, from occupying this inter- 
esting part of the valley of the Connecticut. Indeed, the ex- 
ternal features of the scene, as presented to the eye of those 
who passed up and down the river, must have been less in- 
viting to men who looked rather for rich lands than for 
beautiful scenery, especially when contrasted with the plains 
that opened up their perspective of grass-lands, lengthened 
interminably by the over-arching elms that lured the eager 
sight on either bank, a few miles further up the valley. The 
pioneers were not tourists in search of the diversified and the 
picturesque in nature, and therefore as they sailed down they 
must have turned a cold shoulder to the apparently wet lands, 
covered with wild bushes that lay above the site of the pres- 
ent city, and it could no^t have occurred to the most pro- 
phetic mind of all the voyagers, that the cliffs of red sandstone 
rising above the water that had been fretting their base for so 
many obscure ages, could contain quarries of such inexhaust- 
ible wealth, so soon to be developed by their descendants. 
Below the city, too, where the swift stream, with frowning 
evergreens fringing its dark borders, could be twice spanned 
by the flight of the Indian's arrow, as, speeding on its errand 
of mischief, it skimmed the surface of the compressed cur- 
rent, selecting its victims from the pinnace or the shallop, 
the sun-browned traffickers must have shuddered at the sight 
of the very shades that now tempt the leisure-loving on a 
summer's day to lean over the sides of the boat and look back 
with a kindly regret. But when once the keen English far- 
mer had ventured to go ashore and ascend the hills that com- 
mand the rich and variegated landscape, he could not long 
remain in ignorance of the abundance that had been poured 
from the full horn of plenty on every side. 

The Indians at Mattabesett were very numerous. A good 
deal of trouble was expected to result from their being so 
near the English settlement, but they were much more do- 
cile than their white neighbors anticipated. The tribe had 
a reservation on the western bank of the Connecticut, in the 



170 HISTOEY OF CONNECTICUT. 

place called Newfield. Here was an old burial-ground. A 
cemetery it has been very properly called, for these Indians 
indulged enough in the refinements of external mourning to 
erect monuments over the graves of their dead. On the 
eastern bank of the river was another reservation. At a 
place called Indian Hill was a graveyard with rude stones 
and inscriptions after the manner of the English. Here, in a 
sitting posture, with his blanket wrapped about his shoulders, 
the vessel containing the food prepared by his friends, that 
was to sustain him upon his long journey, resting upon his 
knee, the warrior's skeleton may still be found blackened 
with the mouldering earth. Ghastly the exhumed skull 
frowns upon the obtruding sunlight for a moment, and then 
slowly crumbles beneath the corroding influences of the up- 
per air, to which it has been so rudely exposed !* 

The settlement at Delaware was too remote to be any- 
thing other than a burden to the colony of New Haven. In 
the spring of 1651, fifty men from New Haven and Totoket 
hired a vessel and with their effects sailed for Delaware bay. 
They went provided with a commission from governor Ea- 
ton, and with two letters, one from him and the other from 
the governor of Massachusetts — both addressed to governor 
Stuy vesant, informing him that these adventurers were about 
to settle their own lands, and would not encroach upon the 
rights of the Dutch. When Governor Stuyvesant had read 
these letters, he was very much enraged. He seized the 
messengers who delivered them to him, and put them under 
guard. At the same time, under pretence of making some 
inquiries, he sent to the master of the vessel to come ashore, 
and as soon as he could get him within his reach, he caused 
him to be arrested. He also got possession of the commis- 
sion of the company by some feint, and refused to deliver it 
up to the owners. He forced all who came on shore to sign a 
paper, in which they promised very solemnly that they would 

* For a more full accouDt of the early history of Middletown, arid the adjacent 
towns, the reader is referred to the Rev. Dr. Field's statistics of Middlesex Coun- 
ty, and to his centennial address at Middletown, in 1850. 



[1651.] 



THE DELAWARE LANDS. 171 



not pursue their voyage, but with all speed of wind and wave 
would hasten back to New Haven. He dismissed them with 
direful threats of confiscation of goods, and imprisonment in 
Holland, if he ever caught them attempting to make a settle- 
ment at Delaware. 

On the 14th of September, the commissioners met at New 
Haven. It was not very long before Jasper Crane and Wil- 
liam Tuttle, smarting under the summary proceedings to 
which they had been subjected at New Amsterdam, pre- 
sented their petition in behalf of themselves and others, call- 
ing fervently for redress. It was a very inflammable docu- 
ment, setting forth the character of Governor Stuyvesant in a 
light that he could hardly have contemplated with equanimi- 
ty. It spoke of his subjects, too, in terms of great severity. 
It ended with a stirring appeal to the commissioners for 
protection and vindication. 

The commissioners lost no time in writing to Governor 
Stuyvesant a letter, charging him with breaking his faith, so 
solemnly plighted at Hartford. They told him, among other 
salutary truths, that his interference with the planters who 
had sailed for Delaware, was insupportable, and that the 
New England colonies had as good a right to Manhattan as 
the Dutch had to these Delaware lands. 

At this same session, it was resolved that if the petitioners 
should begin a plantation at Delaw'are, numbering one hun- 
dred and fifty good men, well armed, within twelve months, 
they would uphold them in the enterprise, and defend them 
from all opposition, whether from the Dutch or Swedes. 

While at New Haven the commissioners were also waited 
upon by a deputation that must have been the fruitful theme 
of conversation at New Haven for many days, — two French 
gentlemen, M. Godfroy and Gabriel Druillets, agents of M. 
D'Aillebout, governor of Canada. These gentlemen pre- 
sented three commissions, one from their governor, another 
from the council of New France, and a third addressed to 
M. Druillets himself, giving him authority to teach to the In- 
dians the doctrines of Christianity. They appeared in behalf 



172 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

of the French in Canada, and in hehalf of the christianized 
Indians of Acadie, whom they represented to be suffering, on 
account of their religion, the hardships and cruelties of a 
bloody persecution, waged against them by the Mohawks. 
A holy war, they denominated it, that was designed, in viola- 
tion of the most solemn treaties, to quench in blood the last 
spark of the Christian faith upon the western continent. M. 
Druillets was an orator of a very graceful and persuasive ad- 
dress. He used all the arguments at his command to induce 
the colonies to declare war against the Six Nations. If 
they were opposed to involving themselves in a war with 
the Indians, he begged that they would allow volunteers to 
go from any of the New England colonies, with a "free pas- 
sage by land or water to the Mohawk country," and that the 
converted Indians might be taken under the protection of 
New England. He held out the prospect of a free trade to 
be established upon a permanant basis between the French 
and English colonies, as a fair requital for the favors, if they 
should be granted. 

With becoming politeness the commissioners, for many 
good reasons, declined to add to all the evils then impending 
over them, the burden of a new war. 

On the 30th of June, 1652, the General Court of Connecti- 
cut met to adopt measures for the defense of the colony 
against the Dutch. A war had already broken out between 
England and Holland. It was ordered, that the cannon at 
Saybrook should be mounted upon carriages, and that all 
the families in the neighborhood should be brought within the 
inclosure of the fort. The Indians in the vicinity of all the 
plantations were required to evince signs of their friendship 
to the English, by delivering up their arms to the governor 
and magistrates. 

Some time in March it became rumored abroad that Gov- 
ernor Stuyvesant had concerted a plan with Ninigret to ex- 
terminate the English in all the colonies, and that the sachem 
of the Nihanticks had been spending the winter with his 
allv, at Manhadoes, and had been sent home in a Dutch 



[1652.] CHARGES AGAINST GOV. STUYVESANT. 173 

sloop in very great state, and with a large supply of guns and 
ammunition. The sole evidence to support this charge, was 
the testimony of Indians, who came to Hartford and other 
towns, and made oath to the existence of the plot. Nine 
sachems sent in their affidavits to Stamford, to the same effect.* 
The story, without foundation as it was, and originating in 
the malice and cunning of some one who had a motive for 
giving it currency, could not fail to alarm the English. A 
meeting of the Congress was called on the 19th of April, and 
the commissioners proceeded to hear the allegations. They 
were presented in such an adroit manner, and backed up by 
such an army of Indian witnesses, that six of the commis- 
sioners were satisfied of the existence of the conspiracy. 
Those who represented Massachusetts were so remote from 
the supposed scene of the tragedy, and were so conscious of the 
strength of their colony, that they could look at the evidence 
more calmly, and were convinced that the charges against 
the Dutch and Indians were without foundation. It was re- 
solved to send letters to the Dutch governor before war was 
declared. 

When Governor Stuyvesant heard of this attack upon his 
character, he was highly incensed. His conduct on the occa- 
sion was, however, dignified and becoming. He hastened to 
write letters to the Congress, in which he denied that he was 
guilty of the outrageous wickedness attributed to him. His 
sensibilities were so shocked at the reflection thot his char- 
acter could be thus misrepresented, that he generously offered 
to send a messenger, or go in person to Boston, if it was de- 
sired, to establish his innocence ; or if the Congress would 
sen^ a committee to Manhadoes, he would undertake to give 
the colonies the most satisfactory proofs of his integrity 
and honor. At the same time he expressed his astonishment 
that the English could give credit to such accusations, com- 
ing from such corrupt sources. 

The suggestion of Stuyvesant was adopted, and a commit- 
tee was sent with plenary power to investigate the matter. 
* Trumbull, i. 203. 



I 



174 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

This committee was made up of Francis Newman of New 
Haven, John Leverett, afterwards governor of Massachu- 
setts, and William Davis.* They repaired to Manhattan, and 
presented themselves for the discharge of their duties. Ow- 
ing, perhaps, to the unpleasant tone of the letters sent to Man- 
hattan in reply to the exculpatory communications of Stuyves- 
ant, as well as owing to the offensive nature of their mission, 
these gentlemen were not received with much cordiality. 
The governor refused to answer any questions except such as 
should be approved by men of his own appointing, and 
chose two who had especially incurred the dislike of the 
English at Hartford. One of these men had been put under 
bonds while there, for his misdemeanors. At this, the agents 
of the Congress were offended, and remonstrated against the 
insult offered to the colonies, and the Idng. Both parties 
were evidently in no very dispassionate mood. The govern- 
or remained inexorable as to the mode of transacting the 
business, and the agents, after demanding satisfaction for all 
past injuries and indemnity against all future wrongs, took a 
very haughty leave of a host who appears to have been 
glad to be rid of them. 

On their way home, the English agents spent some time 
in gathering additional proof of the guilt of the Dutch gov- 
ernor ; and when they arrived, they were in a favorable mood 
to make an alarming report of the treatment that they had 
received at his hands. Letters soon after arrived in Hart- 
ford and New Haven, giving the additional intelligence that 
Stuyvesant had also hired the Mohawks to join in this exe- 
crable measure. Again Stuyvesant remonstrated and at the 
same time, in a fit of exasperation, asserted his old claims of 
jurisdiction to New Haven and Connecticut. 

The commissioners, with the exception of Bradstreet, were 
now all in favor of a declaration of war. That gentleman 
represented the wishes of the General Court of Massachu- 
setts. His opposition led to a harsh debate, and finally to a 
committee of conference between the Congress and the Gen- 
* Hutchinson, i. 166; Trumbull, i. 203. 



[1653. 



MASSACHUSETTS OPPOSED TO WAE. 175 



eral Court, which brought about a reference of the whole 
matter to the elders. That learned body very judiciously 
advised the colonies to " forbear the use of the sword," but 
to be in readiness for defense.* This decision did not satisfy 
the Congress. "Again they resolved on war. Massachusetts 
still remained firm in her opposition. 

On the 30th of May, the Rev. Mr. Norris, of Salem, sent 
a memorial to the Congress, calling loudly for the war.f It 
is a paper of great ability and eloquence. After presenting 
a vivid picture of the condition of the Dutch and English na- 
tions, then in a state of war at home, and warning the Con- 
gress against the loss of respect among the Indians, by pur- 
suing such a vacillating policy, he alludes to the situation of 
these colonies now exposed to danger, who have "sent 
their moan" to the Congress, and called for their assistance, 
which, if they should refuse, the " curse of the angel of the 
Lord against Moses would come upon them." 

Still the General Court of Massachusetts continued inexora- 
ble and passed a resolve that no determination of the Con- 
gress could induce the colony to unite with the others in an 
offensive war with the Dutch, which should appear to the Gen- 
eral Court to be unjust. This resolution led to a written con- 
troversy between Massachusetts and the other colonies, which 
might have ended in the dissolution of the union, but for 
the interference of Cromwell, who took the part of the weak- 
er colonies without any reference to the supposed conspiracy, 
as it best suited his stern policy to do. Massachusetts was 
thus compelled to yield. The ships of the Protector were 
already on their passage to America, to reduce the pride of 
the governor of New Netherlands. 

I have already stated it to be my belief that the story of 
the plot against the English was a sheer fabrication. Who 
w^as its author, I am of course unable to say. The fact that 
the Mohawks were made parties to it, and that it resulted in 
a declaration of war against Ninigret, enables me to draw an 
inference that certainly exonerates the English from any 

* Hutchinson, i. 1 67 ; Trumbull, i. 207. t Records of the United Colonies. 



176 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

blame, unless it be in the exercise of too large a measure of 
credulity in a matter that appeared to them to threaten their 
very existence. As regards the conduct of Massachusetts in 
io-norino- the resolves of a confederacy which she was sol- 
emnly pledged to support, I will only quote the language 
of her own historian, who dismisses this topic with the re- 
mark that, " where states in alliance are greatly dispropor- 
tioned in strength and importance, power often prevails over 
right."* This is a very happy blending of the elements of 
praise and blame in a simple sentence, and expresses all that 
need be said upon a subject that certainly gave occasion for 
much just censure on both sides. f 

* IlutcWnsoii, i. 168. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE DEPARTUEE OF LUDLOW. DEATH OF HAYNES, WOLCOTT AND ilATON. 

The alarm excited by the charges against the Dutch and 
Indians resuhed in some unhappy contentions. Stamford 
and Fairfield were in a state of excitement bordering on 
phrensy. They complained that the war was not prosecuted 
by the Congress, and that Connecticut and New Haven neg- 
lected to lend a helping hand to them at a time when their 
enemies were pressing upon them. These little settlements, 
so near the Dutch jurisdiction, with the remembrance still 
alive of bloody Indian depredations so recently brought to 
their very doors, had much reason to be anxious when they 
reflected upon their situation, in a remote and solitary re- 
gion, where they might be murdered, and their houses burned 
to ashes, long before the news could be carried to New Ha- 
ven. Having demanded troops to protect her, and not re- 
ceiving them from the government of New Haven, Stam- 
ford finally lost all patience and threatened to free herself 
from the expensive taxes of a colony that either could not or 
would not defend her, and place herself under the immediate 
protection of England. It was not until the deputy gov- 
ernor, in company with Mr. Newman, paid them a visit, and 
read to them an order of the committee of Parliament, call- 
ing upon all the towns to obey their respective colonial gov- 
ernments, that they were induced to yield.* 

The citizens of Fairfield held a town meeting, and with 
one consent determined to raise troops independently of Con- 
necticut, and carry on the war themselves. They appointed 
Roger Ludlow commander-in-chief f As the year 1654 
may, for the purposes of historical narrative, be considered 
as the year of his civil death, I cannot omit this occasion 

* Trumbull, i. 214. t Trumbull ; Brodhead, i. 565 : Allen, 548. 

12 



178 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

of making a brief allusion to the character and to the per- 
sonal history of this remarkable man, as far as I am able to 
gather it from the scattered shreds that are left of his impul- 
sive career. He was a lawyer of good family, and resided 
in Dorchester, in the county of Dorsetshire, in the southern 
part of England. On the 10th of February, 1630, he was 
chosen an assistant by the General Court of Massachusetts. 
In May, following, he sailed from Plymouth for America, in 
the Mary and John, and entered upon the discharge of his 
official duties at the first Assistant Court, held at Charles- 
town in August, of the same year. He continued to occupy 
this place for four years. In 1634 he was chosen deputy 
governor of the province, and hoped to have been raised to 
the rank of governor, but was disappointed by the jealousy 
of the deputies, who appear to have taken offense at some 
impolitic remarks made by him, probably in relation to their 
growing strength and to the frequency of elections. To 
show him how well they could vindicate themselves, and 
perhaps to reciprocate his good advice by giving him a prac- 
tical lesson upon exercising the Christain virtue of humility, 
they elected John Haynes governor. Ludlow protested 
against this appointment in terms of severity. He alleged 
that the election was void for the reason that the deputies 
had agreed upon their candidate before they left their respec- 
tive towns. By way of requital for making such an accusa- 
tion, which was in all probability true, and as a further proof 
of the popular power, he was left out of the magistracy for 
that year. He had not learned the art, so common in our 
age, of telling the people precisely what he did not believe 
to be true. 

Discouraged at this decided expression of the popular dis- 
pleasure, he removed to Connecticut during the summer or 
fall of the year 1635, and established himself at Windsor. 
Here he continued under the gentle ministrations of Mr. 
Wareham, and soon became one of the most conspicuous 
men in the colony. In the summer of 1637, he was sent by 
the General Court as one of the advisers of the Connecticut 



ROGER LUDLOW. 179 

forces in the second stage of the Pequot war.* He was 
probably the first lawyer who ever came into the colony, and 
one of the most gifted who have ever lived in it. 

I have already incidentally alluded to the part that he took 
in framing the constitution of 1G39. I cannot help regard- 
ing it as mainly his work. The phraseology is his : it 
breathes his spirit. It must have been substantially the off- 
spring of some one mind, that pierced like an eagle through 
the clouds that shrouded the seventeenth century, and sought 
the pure region of right reason, shining none the less bright- 
ly, that, like the rolling spheres of light, it is expressed in dis- 
tinct forms. I have compared this paper with those written 
by Milton, expressive of his views of government and of lib- 
erty. In the political writings of the great poet I can see 
the marks of unbounded genius, vast imagination and pro- 
phetic hopes, lighting up the dim horizon with the golden 
promises of dawn. But I find there no well-digested system 
of republicanism. He deals alone with the absolute.- His 
republic would befit only a nation of Miltons. His laws 
are fit only to govern those who are capable of being a law 
unto themselves. But Ludlow views the concrete and the ab- 
stract both at once. He is a man of systems — such systems 
as can alone be placed in the hands of frail men to protect 
them against their worst enemies — their own lawless passions. 

On the 11th of April, 1639, he was chosen deputy gov- 
ernor of the commonwealth, and was the first who ever held 
that ojffice in Connecticut.! John Haynes, whose elevation 
to the place of governor in Massachusetts, in 1635, was the 
cause of Ludlow's removing from that province, was elected 
governor of Connecticut at the same time that Ludlow was 
made deputy governor. This unlucky coincidence must 
have been galling to the pride of an ambitious man, and 
whether it induced him, when considered in connection with 
his former defeat, to regard Haynes as his evil genius, or 
whether he intended to found a new colony, rather than a 

* J. H. Trumbull, i. 10. t J- H. Trumbull, i. 27. 



180 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT, 

town, in a place that seemed remote enough for such a pur- 
pose, I cannot positively aver ; yet had he been placed at 
the head of the magistracy, I have no doubt that he would 
have remained longer at Windsor. Still it would have been 
only a brief sojourn. This enthusiastic, restless man could 
not have been tempted to tarry long in any one place even 
could he have been rewarded with a diadem. It was not 
alone the stirring of that emulation, that, like the love of fame, 
belongs to all noble minds — not alone the " trophies of Milti- 
ades," that drove sleep from his pillow ; but rather the bright 
visions that throbbed in the pulses of the adventurer, and 
called him, not for the love of earthly goods, but to give zest 
to the faculties and room for the free tides of a restless na- 
ture to ebb and flow without restraint — that led him to ven- 
ture forth again into the wilderness. He had already visited 
Unquowa, and his eye had made such a pleasant acquaint- 
ance with its fields and streams, that he could not long hesi- 
tate wjiither to betake himself After his removal to Fair- 
field, he still continued to perform important services for 
Connecticut, and in 1646 he was appointed by the General 
Court to reduce her crude and ill-defined laws to a system.* 
This he did as well as it could be done when we consider the 
scanty materials that were furnished him for such a struc- 
ture. The code was published at Cambridge in 1672.f He 
was several times a commissioner for the colony in the New 
England Congress. His connection with the Congress ap- 
pears to have been the remote cause of his sudden though 
voluntary exile. Why the conduct of the citizens of Fair- 
field, in arming either to defend themselves or to go in pur- 
suit of a dreaded enemy, who was every day expected to in- 
vade their settlement, should have been looked upon by Con- 
necticut as an act worthy of animadversion, when the Gen- 
eral Court itself admitted the existence of the dangerous 
emergency that induced them to take the step, I am unable 
to say. It is certain that no sedition was in their hearts. 

* J. H. Trumbull, i. 138, 154. t AUen's Biog. Die, 548. 



ROGER LUDLOW, 181 

Angry they doubtless were, and Ludlow not the least, for he 
had an "infirmity of temper" that often visited him — angry 
and grieved that they had been left by the government in 
such a defenseless condition ; but they only took up arms in 
obedience to the instinct of self-preservation, that is, accord- 
ing to the common law of England, a divine voice, para- 
mount in its authority to all earthly jurisdictions. Yet their 
conduct was treated as reprehensible and seditious, and 
Robert Bassett and John Chapman were charged with " fo- 
menting insurrections," and were treated as the leaders of the 
project. Ludlow must have known that these accusations 
were aimed at him, as he was the principal man of the town. 
He felt that he had, without any moral guilt, incurred the 
displeasure of the colony, and that unless he should make 
some humiliating concessions, his behavior would not be 
likely to escape public censure. It was quite evident that 
his popularity had already reached its meridian. Proud and 
sensitive to a high degree, he brooded over the change that 
had taken place in his prospects, as well for promotion as for 
usefulness, and at last came to the conclusion, not without 
many keen regrets, to leave the colony where he had held 
so conspicuous a place for nineteen eventful years. 

On the 26th of April, 1654, he embarked at New Haven, 
with his family and effects, for Virginia, where he passed in 
obscurity the remainder of his days.* 

I have been thus minute in treating of him, because I felt 
called upon to do justice to the memory of a great man, 
whose faults were better understood than his virtues by his 
contemporaries, and who is almost a mythological character, 
except as his name still keeps the brief paragraph allotted to 
it in the records that load the shelves of the antiquary. He 
seems indeed himself to have courted oblivion, for he carried 
away with him the entire records of the town that he had 
planted, and of which he was the register at the time of his 
romantic flight, as if to blot out every trace of his irregular 

* I am indebted for some of the facts set forth in this sketch, to the Hon. 
James Savage, LL. D., President of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 



182 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

footprints from the soil of Connecticut. But his fame, 
Hke that of all other men of genius, who have labored 
in the cause of the people, rests upon no such frail founda- 
tion ; for genius builds its own imperishable temple, whose 
worshipers are the millions of "freemen whom the truth 
makes free."* 

Just before the departure of Ludlow from the colony, died 
his Excellency, John Haynes, while in the midst of his offi- 
cial term. He was as unlike Ludlow as one man could well 
be dissimilar to another. He was a native of the county of 
Essex, in England, and was of good lineage. He was the 
owner of Copford Hall, an elegant seat that afforded an an- 
nual income of one thousand pounds sterling. He was an 
ardent admirer of Hooker, and, regardless of all social and 
pecuniary considerations, accompanied him to America. As 
I have already stated, he was made governor of Massachu- 
setts in 1G35. The next year he was succeeded by Sir 
Henry Vane, and in the month of June, went with that large 
party who traversed the glades and thickets of the primitive 
forest in quest of the valley of the Connecticut. He had the 
honor of being the first governor of the little commonwealth, 
an office that he held every alternate year until his death. 
He was a gentleman of stately deportment, graceful manners 
and great stability of character.! With less intellectual ac- 
cumen than Ludlow, and without any of his genius, he was 
yet greatly superior to that wandering and whimsical man in 
all the attributes that commanded the popular suffrages. 
Haynes was one of the best representatives of the republi- 
canism of that day, which Coleridge has so justly called a 
"religious and moral aristocracy." He was one of the best 
examples of the Puritan class or party. Ludlow on the other 

* The family name of Ludlow is an ancient one in England, and from it prob- 
ably the famous castle of Ludlow received its name. Ludlow is celebrated as the 
place where Butler wrote a portion of Hudibras, and there were deposited some 
of the remains of Sir Henry Sidney. 

+ See Trumbull, i. 216, &c. ; Mather's Magnalia, ii. 17; Hutchinson, i. 39, 
43, 55 ; Hohnes, i. 303. 



[1654.] ARRIVAL OF SEDGWICK AND LEVERETT. 183 

hand, belonged to no p^rty, but was himself the prototype 
of a different order of republicanism that has at last diffused 
itself like the air over the surface of the continent. 

The question of the Dutch and Indian war still agitated 
the colonies. About the time of Ludlow's removal, one 
Manning, master of a small armed vessel, was arrested by the 
authorities of New Haven colony, for carrying on a contra- 
band trade with the Dutch at Manhattan. While Manning's 
trial was going on at New Haven, his men took possession 
of his ship, and in defiance of the government sailed out of 
Milford harbor, where she had been riding at anchor. The 
gallant people of Milford armed and manned a vessel, and 
gave the fugitive such a chase that they came in sight of 
her before she reached Manhattan, and pressed so hard upon 
her that her crew betook themselves to their boat, and left 
her adrift to fall an easy prey into the hands of her pursurers, 
who brought her back into the harbor, where she was con- 
demned with her cargo as a lawful prize. 

A few days after. Major Sedgwick and Captain Leverett 
arrived in Boston with a fleet, sent over by the Lord Pro- 
tector at the request of Connecticut and New Haven, to 
carry on the war with the Dutch.* On the 8th of June, 
governor Eaton received a letter from Cromwell, informing 
him that he had sent the fleet for the assistance of the col- 
onies. Major Sedgwick and Captain Leverett also sent let- 
ters, asking that each of the governments would send com- 
missioners to consult with them as to the objects of the expe- 
dition. Connecticut and New Haven both sent commis- 
sioners, and such was the zeal of Connecticut that she au- 
thorized Mason and Cullick, whom she chose to represent 
her in this important embassy, to engage in her behalf two 
hundred soldiers, and, rather than that the enterprise should 
fail, even five hundred if necessary. f 

In Massachusetts the old opposition to the war remained 
unshaken. On the 8th of June, the General Court convened 
in a state of considerable excitement. They would vote to 
* Brodhead, i. 582, 583. t J. H. Trumbull, i. 260. 



184 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

raise neither men nor money for the war. Still they re- 
solved that Sedgwick and Leverett might enrol five hundred 
volunteers in Massachusetts if they could.* The commis- 
sioners decided that an army of about eight hundred men 
would be sufficient to reduce the Dutch to subjection. f The 
ships were to furnish two hundred, three hundred volunteers 
were to be raised, if they could be, in Massachusetts ; Con- 
necticut was to send two hundred, and New Haven one hun- 
dred and thirty-three. All this bustle and preparation was 
nipped in its first beginnings by the news — not very grateful 
to Connecticut and New Haven — that England and Holland 
were again at peace. 

Major Sedgwick employed this fleet and the Massachusetts 
volunteers to drive the French from Penobscot, St. John's, 
and the adjacent coasts. It is needless to say that he would 
not have dared to do it had he not acted under secret instruc- 
tions from Cromwell. J 

* Hazard, i. 587, 589 ; Hutchinson, i. 109. t Records of the United Colonies. 

t The following letter from the renowned geologist, Professor Adam Sedg- 
wick, of Cambridge University, England, addressed to General Charles F. Sedg- 
wick, of Sharon, Connecticut, contains much valuable information relative to the 
family of Major General Robert Sedgwick, who is the ancestor of all the Sedg- 
wicks in New England. This letter cannot fail to interest the public. It is in- 
trmsically a gem, aside from the great name of its author. 

«gjjj. "Cambridge, Feb. 26, 1837. 

" After an absence from the University of several months I returned to my 
chambers yesterday, and found j-our letter on my study table. I first supposed 
that it might have been there some time, but on looking at the date, I was greatly 
surprised that it had reached me in a little more than three weeks after it had 
been committed to the post on the other side of the Atlantic. Of your patriarch, 
Robert Sedgwick, I have often heard, as the active part he took during the pro- 
tectorate, made him, in some measure, an historical character ; and about the 
same time there were one or two Puritan divines of considerable note and of the 
same name ; but whether or no they were relations of his, I am not able to in- 
form you. The clan was settled from very early times, among the mountains 
which form the borders of Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Westmoreland, and I be- 
lieve every family in this island of the name of Sedgwick can trace its descent 
from ancestors who were settled among those mountains. The name among the 
country people in the valleys in the north of England, is pronounced Sigswick, 
and the oldest spelling of it that I can find is Siggeswick ; at least it is so written 



THE SEDGWICKS. 185 

Owing to the steady opposition of Massachusetts, the war 
that had been previously declared against Ninigret had not 
been pursued ; and that Indian had become so much em- 

in many of our old parish records that go back to the reign of Henry VIII. It is 
good German, and means the village of victory, probably designating some place 
of successful broil, where our rude Saxon or Danish ancestors first settled in the 
country and drove the old Celtic tribes out of it, or into the remoter recesses of the 
Cambrian mountains, where we meet with many Celtic names at this day. But 
in the valleys where the Sedgwicks are chiefly found, the names are almost ex- 
clusively Saxon or Danish. Ours, therefore, in very early days was a true bor- 
der clan. The name of Sedgwick was, I believe, a corruption given like many 
others through a wish to explain the meaning of a name, (Siggeswick,) the real 
import of which was quite forgotten. The word Sedge is not known in the nothern 
dialects of our island, and the plant itself does not exist among our valley, but a 
branch of our clan settled in the low, marshy regions of Lincolnshire, and seems 
to have first adopted the more modern spelling, and at the same time began to use 
a bundle of sedge (with the leaves drooping like the ears of a corn sheaf,) as the 
family crest. This branch was never numerous, and is, I believe, now almost ex- 
tinct. Indeed the Sedgwicks never seem, (at least in England,) to flourish away 
from their native mountains. If you remove them to the low country, they droop 
and die away in a few generations. A still older crest, and one which suits the 
history of the race, is an eagle with spread wings. Within my memory, eagles ex- 
isted among the higher mountains, visible from my native valley. The arms most 
commonly borne by the Sedgwicks, are composed of a red Greek cross, with five 
bells attached to the bars. I am too ignorant of heraldic terms to describe the shield 
correctly — I believe, however, that this is the shield of the historical branch, and 
that there is another shield belonging to the Siggeswicks of the mountains, with 
a different quartering, but I have it not before me and do not remember it suffi- 
ciently well to give any account of it. All the border clans, and ours among the 
rest, suffered greatly during the wars of Tork and Lancaster. After the Refor- 
mation they seem generally to have leaned to the Puritanical side, and many of 
them, your ancestor among the rest, served in Cromwell's army. From the 
Reformation to the latter half of the last century, our border country enjoyed great 
prosperity. The valleys were subdivided into small properties ; each head of a 
family lived on his own estate, and such a thing as a rented farm hardly existed 
in the whole country, which was filled with a race of happy, independent yeo- 
manry. This was the exact condition of your clansmen in this part of England. 
They were kept in a kind of humble affluence, by the manufactory of their wool, 
which was produced in great abundance by the vast flocks of sheep which were 
fed on the neighboring mountains. I myself, remember two or three old men of 
the last century, who in their younger days had been in the yearly habit of ridinw 
up to London to negotiate the sale of stockings, knit by the hands of the lasses of 
our own smiling valleys. The changes of manners, and the progress of machin- 
ery, destroyed, root and branch, this source of rural wealth ; and a dismal change 
has now taken place in the social and moral aspect of the land of your fathers. 



186 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

boldened by the pacific demeanor of the English towards him, 
that he continued to follow up the interdicted hostilities 
against the Long Island Indians, with renewed vigor. These 
Indians were allies of Connecticut, and he well knew that 
the faith of the colony was pledged to defend them. 

Connecticut now sent Major Mason with a small number 
of men, and with a supply of ammunition, as a present to the 
sachem of Montauket, which he was not to use to injure 
Ninigret, but simply to defend himself* New Haven, also, 
sent Lieutenant Seely with men to join Mason at Saybrook, 
and aid him in encouraging and defending the Montauket 
Indians. t 

In September, the Congress met at Hartford and soon sent 
messengers to Ninigret, commanding him forthwith to ap- 
pear before them. Ninigret sent back a very argumenta- 
tive and elaborate answer, the purport of which was, " that 
he would neither go to Hartford nor send an ambassador 
there to treat with the Congress, and that he owed no tribute 
on account of the Pequots."J The commissioners ordered 
forty horsemen and two hundred and fifty foot soldiers,§ to be 
raised and sent into his country to bring him to abetter frame 
of mind. The Congress nominated three gentlemen. Major 
Gibbons, Major Denison, and Ninigret's old acquaintance, 

It is now a very poor country, a great portion of the old yeomanry, (provincially 
called statesmen,) lias been swept away. Most of the family estates (some of 
which had descended from father to son for two or three hundred years.) have 
been sold to strangers. The evil has, I hope, reached its crisis, and the country 
may improve, but it seems morally impossible that it should ever again assume the 
happy xVreailian character which it had before the changes that undermined its 
whole social system. 

I have now told you all I can compress mtr> one sheet, of the land of your fathers' 
fathers, of the ancestors of that pilgrim from whom my transatlantic cousins are 
descended. A few families have survived the shock ; mine among the rest. And 
I have a brother in the valley of Dent, who now enjoys a property which our 
family has had ever since the Reformation. I fear you will think this information 
very trifling — such as it is, it is very much at your service. Believe me, Sir, your 
very faithful servant, A. Sedgwick." 

* J. H. Trumbull, i. 295. + New Haven Colonial Records. 

t See Holmes' Annals, i. 301. 

§ Records United Colonies; Hutchinson i. 172 ; Trumbull, i. 223. 



[1654.] WILLARD's EXPEDITION. 187 

Captain Humphrey Atherton, leaving it to the discretion of 
Massachusetts to select any one of them to take the chief 
command. All these nominees were gallant and skillful offi- 
cers, who would soon have brought the refractory chief to 
terms. But for reasons best known to the General Court of 
Massachusetts, they were all rejected, and Major Willard 
was appointed. Willard had orders from the Congress to 
move forward by the 13th of October, march directly to 
Ninigret's quarters, and demand of him the Pequots who had 
been entrusted to his care, and the unpaid tribute. In case 
of a refusal., he was to take both Pequots and tribute by vio- 
lent means. He was farther instructed to demand of the Ni- 
hantick sachem to desist from waging the war with the 
Montauket Indians. Should Ninigret fail to comply with 
this order, force was to be employed to bring him to subjec- 
tion. Willard either acted under secret instructions from 
Massachusetts, or he was not possessed of the courage be- 
coming the leader of such an enterprise. On arriving at the 
principal village of the Nihanticks, he found it deserted. 
The corn and other valuables had been left in the care of a 
few old men, squaws and children, and Ninigret had taken 
refuge in a swamp about fifteen miles distant from the vil- 
lage. Without going in search of the fugitive chief, or so 
much as making known to him the object of this apparently 
friendly visit, the heroic Willard brought back his army 
without any awkward accident of bloodshed or harsh words 
to qualify the pleasure that he must haVe felt in the wearing 
of laurels so innocently won. About one hundred Pequots, 
who had suffered every thing but death from the cruelties 
practiced upon them by Ninigret, took advantage of his 
absence and followed the army to Connecticut, where they 
put themselves under the protection of the English.* 

The Congress did not receive Major Willard with much 
cordiality. It was in vain that he attempted to excuse his 
inertness by professing not to understand his instructions. 
The disappointed commissioners coldly replied — " while the 

* Holmes, i. 301, 302 ; Hutchinson, i. 172. 



188 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

army was in the Narragansett country, Ninigret had his 
mouth in the dust." If Willard acted under private instruc- 
tions from Massachusetts, as governor Hutchinson would 
seem to intimate, that colony departed for once from her 
usual frank and open manner, to do what was wholly un- 
worthy of her. 

The attempt on the part of Connecticut to defend the 
Long Island Indians, was honorable and necessarv to the 
preservation of her faith. Besides, it was both impolitic and 
unjust, irrespective of the existing treaty, to allow Ninigret, 
upon false pretexts, to wage a war with those defenseless In- 
dians. The fact that he had drawn over to his interests the 
Wampanoags, was of itself, as Massachusetts learned to her 
cost -at a later day, no inconsiderable cause for alarm. But 
it is quite time that this old quarrel was forgotten, and I feel 
no disposition to revive any discussion in relation to it. 

The refugee Pequots begged so earnestly to be taken 
under the protection of the English, that their prayer was at 
last granted, and they had lands assigned them on the Paw- 
catuck and Mistick rivers. They were allowed the privilege 
of hunting on that tract of wild forest land lying west of the 
Mistick, and were placed under the direction of an Indian 
governor, who ruled them according to a code specially pro- 
vided for them. 

Ninigret was now more haughty than ever, and kept the 
whole eastern portion of Long Island in commotion by his 
boisterous manner of prosecuting the war against the Mon- 
taukets. The inhabitants of East Hampton and SouthHamp- 
ton especially complained to the Congress of his reckless be- 
havior towards them. The Rev. Mr. James, minister of the 
former place, and Captain Tapping of the latter, both wrote 
urgent letters, calling for interference. In obedience to this 
call, an armed vessel, under the command of Captain John 
Youngs, was stationed in the road between Neanticut and 
Long Island to watch the movements of Ninigret.* Youngs 
was authorized to draft men from Saybrook and New Lon- 

* Ti-umbuU, i. 225. 



[1655.] 



DEATH OF HENRY WOLCOTT. 189 



don, if he needed them. Should Ninigret attempt to cross 
the Sound, Youngs was ordered to stave in his canoes, and 
to kill him, and as many of his warriors as he could. The 
most thorough measures were taken at the same time to 
protect both the Indians and the English upon Long 
Island. 

This sanguinary order resulted in no harm to Ninigret, 
except that he was obliged to stay at home, and abide his 
time for falling upon his enemies. This he did not soon 
find an opportunity to do, as Connecticut and New Haven 
at their own expense continued to keep the armed vessel for 
still another year cruising along his coast. It was a very 
unpleasant constraint upon his movements and power to do 
mischief, but he was obliged to submit with as good grace as 
he could. 

It is a very trite observation, and has been found 
true in human experience, with nations as with individ- 
uals, that calamities journey not alone ; but by some subtle 
law of affinity, are grouped together, and sustain each to 
the other a mournful yet instructive relationship. So was 
it with Connecticut during this interesting period of her 
history. 

Scarcely had she brushed from her cheek the tear-drops 
that betokened her sorrow at the death of Haynes, when 
again her eye was dimmed with the signs of a new bereave- 
ment. In the 78th year of his age, but with a judgment un- 
clouded, and his usefulness unimpaired, the venerable Henry 
Wolcott, one of the principal magistrates and advisers of 
the colony, quickly followed his friend and comrade to the 
grave. I cannot help making a brief mention of him, and 
yet were I to speak at any considerable length of all the 
bright examples of patriotism and exalted worth that have 
borne the name of Wolcott in Connecticut, I should find 
this work extending itself beyond the limits that I had 
marked out for it. 

Henry Wolcott, Esquire, the ancestor of all the Wolcotts 
of this state, was of a very ancient family, and the owner 



190 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

of a larsre estate in Somersetshire.* He was born in Tol- 
land on the 6th of December 1578, and was the son and 
heir of John Wolcott of Golden Manor. The manor-house 
is still standing, and is of very great antiquity and extent. 
It was originally a splendid mansion, designed, as well for the 
purposes of defense against the excesses of a lawless age, as 
for a permanent family residence. It is still richly orna- 
mented with carved- work, and if left to itself unassailed by 
the hand of violence, it will stand for ages. The familiar 
motto of the family arms, borrowed from the Roman poet, is 
still to be seen upon the walls of the manor-house, its bold 
words informing us that the family who have adopted it as 
their text of life were " accustomed to swear in the words of 

* Through the researches of Mr. Somerby, of Boston, in the herald's officej 
among the subsidy rolls, wills, and parish records of England, the genealogy of 
Henry Wolcott, Esquire, (the emigrant,) has been traced, through fifteen gener- 
ations, back to Sir John Wolcott, knight, as follows : 

1. Jeran Wolcott, (son of Sir John,) of Wolcott, who married Anna, daughter 
of John Mynde, of Shropshire. 

2. Roger Wolcott, of Wolcott, who married Edith, daughter of Sir Wm. 
Donnes, knight. 

3. Sir Philip Wolcott, of Wolcott, knfght, who married Juhan, daughter of 
John Herle. 

4. John Wolcott, of Wolcott, who married Alice, daughter of David Lloyd, 
Esq. 

5. Sir John Wolcott, of Wolcott, knight, A.D. 1382. 

6. Thomas Wolcott. 

7. John Wolcott. 

8. John Wolcott, of Wolcott, who married Matilda, daughter of Sir Richard 
Cornwall, of Bereford, knight. 

9. Roger Wolcott, of Wolcott, Esq., who married Margaret, daughter of 
David Lloyd, Esq. 

10. William Wolcott, settled in Tolland, Somersetshire. 

11. William Wolcott, who married Elizabeth. His will is dated A.D., 
1500. 

12. Tliomas Wolcott, who was living in Tolland in 1552. 

13. Thomas Wolcott, who married Alice. Will dated Nov. 4, 1572. 

14. John Wolcott, of Golden Manor, in Tolland. Will proved, JSTov. 10, 
1623. 

15. Henry Wolcott, (the emigrant,) who conveyed the manor house to his son 
Henry. 



HENRY WOLCOTT. 191 

no master."* It is alike in keeping with the independent 
spirit of an English gentleman of the middle ages, and with 
that of a Puritan of the 17th century who spurned the 
dictation of ecclesiastical dominion. 

In his early life Henry Wolcott lived after the manner of 
the landed gentry, at an era when the term " country squire " 
was synonymous with whatever was bold, athletic, and hardy 
in the steeple-chasing, hospitable days of "merry England." 
But as years stole on, and the principles of the Reformation, 
making little progress at first, began to invade not only the 
wrestling-ring of the yeoman, and the counting-room of the 
merchant, but the hall of the country gentleman, Wolcott, 
among others, was led to direct his thoughts to more serious 
topics, than the pastimes that had engrossed his earlier 
manhood. While meditations respecting a future state of 
being occupied his mind, a religious teacher, Mr. Edward 
Elton, became his guide, and led him to that clear under- 
standing of the doctrines of Christianity, and those firm con- 
victions of its truth that remained with him to the day of 
his death. Of an ardent temperament and lively sensibili- 
ties, and seeing much that needed to be reformed in the 
severities practiced upon so many of the best subjects of the 
realm, he soon became identified with the Puritan party, 
sold a large estate in lands, including the manor-house, for 
which he received about eight thousand pounds sterling, 
probably much less than its value, and made preparations 
to spend the remainder of his days in America. In 1G28 he 
visited New England to examine the country, and returned. 

* " Xullius addictus jurare in verba magistri." In relation to the Wolcott 
coat of arms, the following anecdote may not be without interest to such as are 
curious in matters of heraldry. John Wolcott, of Wolcott, who lived in the 
reign of Henry the Fifth, and who married Matilda, daughter of Sir Richard 
Cornwall, of Bereford, knight, assumed for his arms, the three chess rooks, 
instead of the crow, with the " flours de lis," borne by his ancestors. It is re- 
corded of him in the old family pedigree, that " playinge at the chesse with 
Henry the Fifth, kinge of England, he gave hym (the king) the checke matte 
with the rourke ; whereupon the kinge changed his coate of arms, which was the 
crowe and fleur de leues, and gave him the rourke for a remembrance." 



192 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

His sympathetic nature could not fail to attach itself insepa- 
rably to the self-accusing though charitable and delicate 
Wareham, and he sailed with him for the new world in the 
same ship, and arrived in Massachusetts in May, 1630. 
Roger Ludlow was of the same party. Wolcott remained 
in Dorchester until 1636, when he removed to Windsor 
upon the Connecticut river. He was, as most of our best 
early inhabitants were, a planter, and was the principal one 
in Windsor. He was a member of the General Court of 
Connecticut in 1639. 

In 1643 he was chosen into the magistracy, and continued 
to be one of its most safe and immovable pillars till his death 
in 1655.* His monument of imperishable sandstone, built by 
the same hands that fashioned the one that stands over the 
Fenwick tomb at Saybrook, has been always a shrine to 
tempt towards it the feet of his numerous descendants, who 
have piously guarded it, and lovingly adorned it, for two 
hundred years. Time has spared, and the gray moss has 
not obliterated, the quaint and simple epitaph, whose plain 
lettering tells us that it is the resting place of " Henry Wol- 
cott, some time a magistrate of this jurisdiction." 

The colony of New Haven was regarded by Cromwell 
with singular favor. The Protector had brought Jamaica 
within the power of the British government, and entertained 
the hope that he should be able to people it with the inhabi- 
tants of New England, who, he thought, might be induced 
to leave a sterile region in exchange for the prodigal fruits 
and genial atmosphere of a more tropical clime. With this 
view, in 1656, he wrote letters to his friends in New Haven, 
wherein he adroitly appealed to their sense of religious duty, 
teUing them, in the phraseology of the day, that they had 
"as clear a call " to remove to that island, as they formerly 
had for leaving their native land for New England. These 
letters were laid before the Court by Governor Eaton, and 
their contents made the subject of earnest debates. After a 
careful discussion, the court resolved that, much as they re 
* Trumbull, i. 226, 227. 



[1656.] TEOUBLES AT GREENWICH. 193 

garded the love that his highness bore them, " yet for divers 
reasons they could not conclude that God called them at 
present to remove thither."* 

This year, from representations previously made at 
New Haven, that the people of Greenwich lived in a 
disorderly and riotous way, sold intoxicating liquors to the 
Indians, received and harbored servants who had fled from 
their masters, and joined persons unlawfully in marriage, 
the General Court of that colony resolved to assert their 
jurisdiction over the town and bring its citizens to a more 
orderly manner of demeaning themselves. In May, the 
General Court sent a letter, calling upon those living at 
Greenwich to submit to its authority. They returned an 
answer couched in very spirited language, declaring that 
New Haven had no right to set up such a claim, and that 
they never would submit to it unless compelled to do so by 
parliament. But when the spirit of such men as Eaton and 
Davenport pervades a legislative body, it is not easily driven 
from any position that has been deliberately taken. The 
General Court passed a resolve, that unless the recusants 
should appear in open court, and make a formal submission 
by the 25th of June, Richard Crabbe and some others who 
were most stubborn in their opposition, should be arrested 
and punished according to law. This had the effect intend- 
ed ; Crabbe and others, who were not ready for martyrdom, 
yielded with as good grace as they could.f 

The Indians in Connecticut, who had been kept in check 
for some time, now found it impossible any longer to restrain 
their bad passions. With the exception of an occasional 
outbreak of malice, and the constant flow of falsehood and 
subtlety that could hardly be expected to rest even during 
the hours of sleep, Uncas had been very exemplary in his 
conduct for a long time. But as one extreme is said to lead 
to another, he suddenly made amends for his good behavior 
by an outrageous and unprovoked attack upon the Podunk 
Indians at Hartford, He embroiled the whole Indian popu- 

* New Haven Colonial Records. t Trumbull, i. 229. 
13 



194: HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

lation wherever he could exert any influence, setting one 
tribe in opposition to another, by circulating every kind of 
scandal and gossip, and representing the different sachems 
as speaking such haughty and impious words concerning 
their neighbors, as best suited his plans. He taunted the 
Narragansetts with the loss of Miantinomoh, whom he had 
himself murdered, and challenged' them to fight. He even 
proved false to the interests of the Montauket sachem, and 
espoused the cause of his old enemy, Ninigret. The Con- 
gress had enough to do to quench the flames of discontent 
lighted up in so many places at once by this Indian. They 
obliged him to make restitution to the tribes that he had 
wronged, so far as they were able to follow the sly trail of 
his mischief. There was nothing that Uncas disliked so 
much as to make an honorable restitution. It humbled his 
pride ; and what was worse, it made an appeal to the most 
grasping and confirmed avarice. The English knew his 
weak points of character almost as well as he knew theirs, 
and were generally able to bring him to a temporary state 
of quiesence — but keep him quiet they never could for any 
considerable period of time. 

The colony of New Haven, on the 7th of January 1657, 
sustained an irreparable loss in the death of Theophilus 
Eaton, who had been its principal patron, and who had held 
the place of governor from the first establishment of the 
colonial government until he died. He was the son of an 
English clergyman, and was born at Stony Stratford, in 
Oxfordshire. He was bred a merchant, and was carefully 
educated. He was for several years the agent of the East 
Land or Baltic Company, and discharged his trust with such 
ability that he received from that corporation the highest 
expressions of confidence, and many rich presents. He was 
also for some time an ambassador of the king, at the court 
of Denmark. On his return home, he established himself as 
a merchant in the metropolis, where he continued to add to 
his wealth, until his removal to America in 1637. 

At New Haven he attempted to carry on his old pursuits. 



[1657.] DEATH OF GOVERNOR EATON. 195 

but soon abandoned them for agriculture. His public duties 
occupied a large portion of his time. As a judge he was 
impartial, clear-sighted, and inflexible. His magisterial 
presence was calm and majestic, as well from an easy and 
graceful bearing, the result of a native manliness, and an 
extended acquaintance with the world, as from a command- 
ing figure, and a very handsome, open countenance. He 
possessed the qualities of a good statesman, and, ingenuous 
as he was, he was still eminently fitted to be a diplomatist. 
In private life, strict and severe in the discharge of all his 
religious duties, he was yet a model of affability and gentle- 
manly courtesy. He managed his large household with sys- 
tematic regularity. He cared for the moral and religious 
culture of the humblest servants beneath his roof, and al- 
though he lost no suitable occasion to inculcate a lesson, 
he did it with such well-timed delicacy, that they re- 
garded it as an act of affectionate condescension, rather 
than as a rebuke, when he chid them for a fault. He was 
one of the few men who know how to employ an ample 
fortune munificently, and yet for the benefit of themselves, 
and of society. 

His death was very sudden and unexpected. He had not 
been known to be ill, when, on the evening of the 7th of 
January, he entered the apartment of his invalid wife to bid 
her a kindly good night ; " Methinks you look sad," said 
Mrs. Eaton, inquiringly. " The differences in the church at 
Hartford make me sad," replied the good man. Thinking it 
a fair opportunity to press upon his mind a topic that she 
had much at heart, this lady (who was a daughter of Bishop 
Morton, and was ill-satisfied with her husband's abode in a 
neighborhood so uncongenial to her,) resumed with much 
warmth, " Let us even go back to our native country." " I 
shall die here," said the governor, and immediately left the 
room. These were the last words he ever addressed to her. 
About midnight a deep groan was heard in his bed-chamber. 
A member of his household, who slept near by, rushed anx- 



196 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

iously into the room to inquire the cause. " I am very ill," 
said the dying man, and instantly expired.* 

His funeral was deferred until the 11th of the month, and 
took place, as the secretary tells us with a minuteness that 
evinces the keenness of the public sorrow, and the im- 
portance of the event, at " about two o'clock in the after- 
noon." His death was deeply felt in all the colonies, but the 
heaviest blow fell upon New Haven, where he had so long 
shed such a benign example. His great wealth, his un- 
bounded hospitality, his christian virtues, his honesty and his 
fearlessness, have still a traditionary fame in the city that 
was laid out under his eye, and beautified by his hand. 

Almost at the same time, died Edward Hopkins, Esquire, 
son-in-law of Eaton, for several years governor of Connecti- 
cut. Like Eaton he also was a wealthy London merchant, 
and from the same causes of discontent left England under 
the guidance of the strong-willed, bold-hearted Davenport. 
Hopkins was not pleased with the mode of government es- 
stablished at New Haven, and soon took up his abode at 
Hartford, where he was chosen a magistrate in 1639. The 
next year he was elected governor of Connecticut, and 
continued to serve in that capacity every alternate year 
until 1654. Soon after this, he sailed for England, where 
his merits were acknowledged with equal readiness, for 
he was successively chosen warden of the English fleet, 
commissioner of the admiralty and navy, and a member of 
parliament. He was chiefly eminent for his solid under- 
standing, his integrity, and for the mild exercise of the 
Christian charities. Though he left Connecticut, and did 
not lay his bones in her soil, yet it is evident that his heart 
was never alienated from her, for in his will he gave nearly 
all that part of his property still remaining in New England 
to trustees, to dispose of it for the " breeding up of hopeful 
youths in a way of learning." The trustees very judiciously 
gave the legacy, amounting to about one thousand pounds 

* Mather's Magnalia, ii. 29 ; Bacon's Hist. Dis., 110. 



FIRST SETTLEMENT OF STONINGTON. 197 

Sterling, to aid in the support of two gramnfiar schools, one 
at Hartford, and the other at New Haven. He also gave 
five hundred pounds out of his estate in England to charita- 
ble purposes, but in such equivocal language that it was 
finally made the subject of a decree in chancery. It was 
held to belong to Harvard College, and the Grammar School 
at Cambridge in Massachusetts.* 

As early as 1649, William Chesebrough, of Rehoboth, 
commenced a settlement upon that tract of land lying be- 
tween the Mistick and Pawcatuck rivers. Thomas Stanton, 
the interpreter, also, about the same time went there, and 
was the first Englishman who settled upon the bank of the 
Pawcatuck. He did not remove his family to the place 
until some time after he had been himself established there 
as a trader with the Indians. This tract of land was called 
Pequot, and was considered as a part of New London. 
Chesebrough was a blacksmith, and went there under the 
authority of Massachusetts. The fear that this worker in 
metals would aid the savages in repairing their fire-arms, 
and provide them with other sharp and deadly weapons, 
added to the jealousy excited in the General Court of Con- 
necticut ; and the fact that the stranger had come to take 
possession in the name of another jurisdiction, did not at all 
conduce to Chesebrough's peace of mind. Scarcely had 
he built his little hut on the bank of the cove that lies a little 
to the eastward of Stonington Point, and begun to engage in 
the traffic with the Indians of Long Island, and perhaps of 
the main-land, when his operations were interrupted by the 
constable of Pequot, ordering him in the name of the magis- 
trates of Connecticut to desist. Chesebrough refused to 
comply with the order, as he claimed to belong to the juris- 
diction of Massachusetts. Not long after this, he was com- 
manded to leave the territory or appear before the court 
and defend himself The alarmed pioneer accordingly in 
March 1651, presented himself before the General Court at 
Hartford. He made a very able defense. He acknowledged 
* Trumbull, i. 232, 233 ; Holmes' Annals, i. 309, &c. 



198 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

that he had been a blacksmith, but asserted that he had re- 
cently become a farmer, and had sold all the tools that he 
formerly used in carrying on his trade, and had not reserved 
enough " to repair a gun lock or make a screw pin." He 
represented that he had intended to settle in Pequot with the 
other planters, but that he could not suit himself so well 
there as he could upon the salt marsh at Pawcatuck, where 
he could find an immediate support for his cattle. He de- 
clared that he did not go there to live alone because he was 
a heretic or a heathen ; and that he believed in the truth as 
it was taught in the New England churches. He did not 
expect when he went there, to live a great while alone, for 
he supposed others would soon follow him. 

His arguments did not satisfy the court, yet upon his 
giving bonds for his good behavior, and with the assurance 
that he would get a respectable company to live with him 
before the next winter, they suffered him to remain.* His- 
torians have conspired with the court to wrong him. 

Thomas Minor in 1653 became an inhabitant of Pawca- 
tuck. In 1657 the General Court appointed a committee, 
at the head of which was John Winthrop, Esquire, to meet 
at New London, and compare the differences between that 
plantation, and the people of Mistick and Pawcatuck. f By 
this it appears that considerable accessions had already been 
made to the population of the disputed settlement. In 1658 
several families removed there. Captain George Denison, 
Thomas Shaw, and two men of the name of Palmer, were 
among the early planters. 

In 1658 the commissioners decided that the river Mistick 
should be the boundary line between the two jurisdictions 
of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Thus Pawcatuck be- 
came Si Massachusetts town, and took the name of Souther- 
ton. It was known by that name, and continued under the 
government of Massachusetts until after the royal charter 
of Charles II. was granted to us, when it became a part of 
Connecticut. In 1665 the General Court decreed that the 

* Trumbvdl, i. 235 ; Caulkins' New London, 99, 100. t J. H. TrumbuU, i. 300. 



[1660.] 



DEATH OF GOVERNOR WELLES. 199 



place should be called Mistick, in commemoration of Mason's 
victory. In May 1666, by a like order, the name of the 
town was again changed to that of Stonington, which it has 
ever since continued to bear.* It has been the rugged 
nurse of some of the most gallant and heroic men, who 
have done honor to the State during the French and Indian 
■wars, and during the more bitter and sanguinary struggles 
that belong to a later day. The sons of Stonington, like 
those of New London, have for several generations gone down 
to the sea in ships, and done business on the great waters. 

The names of Welles and Webster, at the election of 
1660, no longer appear in the roll of the magistracy. During 
the year, one had dropped " like ripe fruit seasonably gath- 
ered," into the silent grave. The other had sought a home 
in Massachusetts, where he died in 1665. Thomas Welles 
and John Webster, venerable names, both governors of Con- 
necticut, whose virtues are still perpetuated in those who in- 
herit their blood. The dust of Welles rests with that of 
Wyllys and Haynes in the old cemetery at Hartford, without 
a stone to mark the spot. 

Some time during the year 1657, while the old feud 
between the Narragansetts and Mohegans still raged with 
unabated fury, Pessacus advanced suddenly upon the coun- 
try of his enemy, shut up Uncas in his fort, and kept him 
there in a state of siege until his situation seemed hopeless. 
Hopeless it might have been to any other Indian, but Uncas 
was too fruitful in expedients ever to despair. He contrived, 
as a last resort, to send runners to Saybrook fort to inform 
the garrison of his critical situation. He bade them tell 
the English that famine and the sword were impending over 
him and the whole Mohegan tribe, and that the most fatal 
consequences would result to the English, should their old 
friends be destroyed. The wily politician had hit a very 
sensitive nerve. Thomas Leffingwell, an ensign at the fort, 
on learning this piece of intelligence, immediately loaded a 
canoe with provisions, paddled it from the mouth of the Con- 

* Caulkins' New London, 104, 106, &c. 



200 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

necticut to that of the Thames, and, under the friendly 
screen of night, passed up the river, and supplied the famish- 
ing Mohegans with food. Thus recruited the beleaguered 
chief made such a sudden and furious attack upon the panic- 
stricken Narragansetts, that he drove them through the 
woods, and down the rocks with the most complete and 
terrible slaughter. 

We are told, though I know not upon what authority, 
that for this daring exploit of Leffingwell, resulting in the 
salvation of the Mohegan tribe, Uncas gave to his deliverer 
a deed of nearly the whole of the present town of Norwich. 
However this might be, and it is not unlikely, it is quite cer- 
tain that in June, 1659, Uncas went to Saybrook, and there 
gave to the English company, that was probably formed as 
early as 1653, for the settlement of a town on the head 
waters of the Pequot river, a deed of a tract of land at Mo- 
hegan, nine miles square. Nothing was said in the convey- 
ance about any old debts of gratitude to be canceled ; and 
the consideration of the deed was not love and affection, but 
seventy good pounds. This was the second time that the 
prudent vendor had sold it to the English, and taken the 
money for it, unless he had also in a fit of gratitude deeded 
it to Leffingwell. Major Mason was at the head of the 
company formed at Saybrook for the founding of a new 
town. There were thirty-five members of this company, 
who signed its articles of association, and thirty-eight 
original settlers. A few hardy men spent the winter of 
1659 in temporary huts on the new purchase. 

In the spring of 1660, the Rev. James Fitch, Major Mason, 
Mr. Huntinsrton, Gifford, and the other members of the 
association, embracing the principal part of Mr. Fitch's 
church and congregation, removed to the fair plain lying in 
the folds of the swift Yantic, that coiled itself around it as 
the bright-eyed serpent holds the bird, in a delightful though 
inextricable enchantment. The first inhabitants were men 
of rare merit, and of good family, as may be seen by their 
names that have been honorable in the state. Among them 



NORWICH. 201 

I may mention Tracy, Griswold, Smith, Allyn, Howard, 
Hyde, Waterman, Backus, Bliss, Reynolds, Caulkins, and 
Reed. These are not all, but the genealogist and town 
historian have preceded me. The high, sharp ledges of 
rocks that left their sombre shadows on the vale, or some- 
times hid their sternest features behind the trees that shook 
their quivering leaves above the river, and its then copious 
tributaries, while they lent their romantic beauty to the 
town, served also to screen it from the winter winds, as the 
Mohegan chief and his bronzed warriors protected its in- 
habitants from the Nihanticks and the Narragansetts. Here 
the fathers of Norwich dwelt content in their " happy valley," 
without once dreaming, perhaps, that their aspiring sons, 
like the Prince of Abyssinia, would never rest until they 
had sought the hill-tops whence they might look off upon a 
wider world.* 

* The present city of Norwich is on a commanding eminence, and affords one 
of the finest views in New England. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE CHAKTER. 



We have now reached a point in our journey where we 
may pause for a while and take a brief retrospect. 

With the year 1603 closed the reign of Elizabeth. The 
remainder of the first quarter of the seventeenth century was 
occupied by the bigot king, James Stuart.* The next quar- 
ter of a century we behold signalized at different periods by 
the most whimsical tyranny and reckless violation of the 
faith plighted over and over again, on the part of king 
Charles I., and by acts of violence, the natural consequence 
of such behavior, on the part of the people, consummated 
by that awful spectacle then unknown in the civilized world, 
and followed as a precedent but once from that day to the 
present — that of a maddened and misguided people sitting in 
judgment upon the life of their sovereign. Then follow the 
few stern years of Cromwell's dominion, from whom Say and 
Seal, whose aid Charles had tried in vain to buy with the 
lure of tempting offices, turned away his face with equal 
pride and greater loathing — a dominion that can be regarded 
by the right minded as useful only in the same sense that 
destructive earthquakes are, that throw down the walls of 
cities, or fires that consume their old and totterinar edifices, 
and thus make way for more solid masonwork, and more 
graceful and useful structures. 

This brings us — for why should we stop to speak of the 
imbecile protectorate of Richard, or the deep and secret 
game played by Monk, that led the way with such caution 
to a new state of things — this brings us to the long desired 
restoration. 

* James I. reigned from A. D. 1603 to 1625 ; Charles I., his successor, occu- 
pied the throne from 1625 to 1649, having been beheaded on the 30th of Janu- 
ary of the last named year. 



REVOLUTIONS IN ENGLAND. 203 

These first sixty years of the century were teeming with 
events of the most momentous consideration in their bearing 
upon the future destinies of mankind. No wonder, that 
amid such convulsions at home, revolutions chasing one an- 
other as wave follows wave to the shore, the English govern- 
ment should have lost sight of that handful of men who, year 
after year, under the shade of the mighty forest trees, stole 
away from the provincial government at Boston, and set up 
a new jurisdiction for themselves on the Connecticut river 
and along the sea-shore, as well of Long Island as of the 
main-land. Nor is it a thing to excite our surprise, Jhat the 
planters of Connecticut, who sometimes turned their eyes 
from their absorbing employments — the taming of wild na- 
ture or wilder men — to steal a hurried glance at the dusty 
arena where England struggled for the freedom that she 
finally won, should have come at last almost to forget their 
allegiance to the mother country, and should have half im- 
agined that in the recesses of their retirement they were be- 
yond the ken of British statesmanship and out of the pale 
of British authority. 

It is not likely that the framers of the constitution of 1639 
ever entertained the idea of maintaining a government inde- 
pendent of the crown, although they did not think it neces- 
sary or expedient to take upon themselves the voluntary ac- 
knowledgment of a jurisdiction that was sure to thrust itself 
upon them as soon as they could desire to bear its burdens. 
It is possible, too, that they kept themselves in abeyance for 
the time when England, bowed down by her calamities, 
could no longer stretch her shortened sceptre across three 
thousand miles of ocean. 

Let these planters have reasoned as they might, the restor- 
ation of 1660, which brought tranquillity to England and en- 
abled the king to look abroad upon the outer borders of his 
empire, soon taught them to reflect upon the growing impor- 
tance of Connecticut, which could not fail to tempt the cu- 
pidity of a monarch whose extravagant habits and empty 
exchequer called loudly for subsidies. Besides, they were in 



204 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

the midst of dangers : the Dutch on one side, the Indians 
on the other, and the powerful colony of Massachusetts not 
far off, of whose growing importance they had always enter- 
tained such suspicions as weak states must invariably harbor 
against those that are more powerful. The king had suffer- 
ed all the hardships of proscription and exile, and was now, 
at the commencement of his reign, most anxious to please all 
classes of his subjects. He was a Stuart, and with increas- 
ing prosperity his love of prerogative, the ruling passion of 
his father and grandfather, might grow upon him and tempt 
him to trench upon their liberties. What time so favorable 
as the present ? 

Accordingly on the 14th of March 1G61, while the good- 
natured king yet bore his honors with a modest face, the 
General Court of Connecticut determined to make a formal 
avowal of their allegiance to the crown, and apply for a char- 
ter. A very humble and graceful acknowledgment they 
made of it. They now very sedulously called the common- 
wealth that they represented, n colony, and avowed that all 
its inhabitants were the king's faithful subjects. The court 
also made an appropriation of five hundred pounds to prose- 
cute the petition with energy.* 

In May the Court again met, when a petition to his most 
gracious majesty was presented by governor Winthrop for 
their consideration, and was cordially approved. But in 
order that no form of respect might be wanting, and no rea- 
son that could be assigned might be left out of the paper, or 
fail to have its proper weight from being imperfectly stated, 
the deputy governor, Mr. Wyllys, Mr. Allyn, Mr. Wareham, 
Mr. Stone, Mr. Hooker, Mr. Whiting, and the Secretary, 
were associated with the governor as a committee to amend 
and still further perfect it. These gentlemen were also au- 
thorized to write letters to such noblemen and other eminent 
persons as they should see fit, with the design of procuring 
aid in bringing the application to a favorable issue. The 

* Colonial Records, i. 361. 



[1661] APPLICATION FOR THE CHARTER. 205 

Court appointed governor Winthrop the agent of the colony, 
to repair to England and present the petition to the king, 
and to see after the general interests of Connecticut. He was 
particularly instructed how to proceed in the business, and 
was especially directed to procure, if possible, the aid of 
Lord Say and Seal, and the other still surviving proprietors 
under the old patent.* 

With such a committee and such a man as Winthrop at 
its head, it is not surprising that a very strong case was made 
out, and stated in the petition with uncommon ability. How 
the lands had been purchased of the Indians at infinite labor 
and cost, or won from them as the prize of victories gained 
by the colonists at the hazard of their lives, and how they 
had subdivided the territory thus obtained and reduced it 
to a state of culture that made it, with the increased popula- 
tion that then inhabited it, a most valuable addition to the 
I'esources of the king's empire, were all stated with such full- 
ness and force that they could not fail to attract the royal 
notice, seasoned as they were with the insinuating language 
of homage and flattery. 

At the same time a letter was written to Lord Say and 
Seal, who, notwithstanding his dislike of Charles \. and 
Cromwell, had become reconciled to Charles IL and was 
known to possess the king's confidence, reminding his lord- 
ship, by an indirect allusion, of the project that he had him- 
self once entertained of emigrating to America, and of the 
influence that he had exerted upon the colonists, in holding 
out such inducements as his presence and patronage would 
be to them, to remove thither to prepare the way for his 
coming. They further informed him at what a dear rate 
they had purchased of Colonel Fenwick the fort and lands 
that he had sold to them under a threat that, if they refused 
to buy upon his own terms, he would transfer his title to the 
Dutch ; and that they paid the exorbitant price of sixteen 
hundred pounds for what they thus bought, because they 
were under such restraints as placed it out of their power 
* Colonial Records, i. 368, 369. 



206 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

to make the contract upon any terms that were more favor- 
able. They called to the mind of his lordship their weak- 
ness and their exposed situation, with the powerful and grasp- 
ing colony of Massachusetts on their northern border, and 
how impossible it was for Connecticut to settle her boundary 
lines either upon the north or upon the west without the lim- 
itations and authority of a charter. They begged him to as- 
sist governor Winthrop in the enterprise that they had so 
much at heart.* 

Thus commissioned and instructed, the agent of the col- 
ony set sail in August for England, to execute the important 
trust that had been confided to him. When he arrived in 
England, he made immediate application to Lord Say and 
Seal to aid him in gaining a favorable hearing of the king. 
That venerable nobleman was at that time unable to go up to 
London on account of a severe attack of the gout, that prostra- 
ted his powers and unfitted him to attend to his duties at court. 
Yet, true as he ever had been to his old friends in Connecti- 
cut, for whom he always manifested the highest regard, not 
more on account of their religious sentiments than because 
he was himself at heart a republican, he wrote an urgent let- 
ter to the earl of Manchester, then Lord Chamberlain, the 
most spotless character of that corrupt age, whose sympa- 
thies for the people of New England corresponded with his 
own, desiring him to lend his powerful influence to the ap- 
plication. Lord Say and Seal was the only nobleman then 
surviving who had been a grantee in the original patent. 
His letter to Winthrop, bearing date December 11, 1661, 
evinces the kindest and most delicate interest in the welfare 
of the colony. t 

Say and Seal had kept aloof from public life during the 
protectorate, which he abhorred more than he shrunk from 
the tyranny of Charles L, and had remained for a long time 
in haughty retirement at the isle of Lundy, where he lived 
more in the style of a king than of a subject. But he became 

* For a copy of this letter see Trumbull, i. 513, 514. 
t This letter may be found in Trumbull, i. 515. 



[1661.] LORD SAY AND SEAL AND "WINTHROP. 207 

at last tired of his magnificent obscurity and, like many 
others who had struggled to free England from a galling 
yoke, had become sated with the horrors of war, and weary 
of the delays, the inefficiency and the bigotry of the parlia- 
ment. With these views he had not been idle in lending his 
powerful aid to the efforts of Monk and Clarendon, in bring- 
ing back the exiled king. Nor was Charles unmindful of the 
part that his noble subject had taken in the train of compli- 
cated circumstances that led to the restoration. He reward- 
ed him for his fidelity by making him Lord privy Seal.* 
The interposition of such an ally in behalf of Connecticut, 
seconded by the efforts of the Lord Chamberlain, could not 
fail to have weight with the easy, vacillating monarch, who, 
in his best estate, though obstinate, had never possessed an 
independent will, and who had already begun to commit the 
care of his kingdom to his ministers, while he yielded him- 
self up a too ready victim to the soft dalliance of courtly 
pleasures. f Connecticut was also exceedingly fortunate in 
the choice of her agent. Not another man in New England 
was so well fitted as Winthrop to bring this delicate mission 
to a successful result. His naturally flexible and graceful 
mind had been cultivated by a careful education at Cam- 
bridge and Dublin, and his manners, in addition to the spark- 
ling endowments of nature, had been fashioned by the then 
rare accomplishment of an European tour, with abundant 
leisure to observe and study the elegant refinements of the 
higher circles in the various countries that he visited, and 
with the noble self-control to abstain from indulging in their 
vices. J Besides, he had made himself familiar with the new 
world as well as with the old. Its streams, unfettered by 
commerce, save that of the canoe with its light freight of 
skins, winding through woods that had already become the 
theme of many an enchanting fable ; the habits of the wild 
men who frequented those woods ; their laws, their modes of 
subsistence, of waging war, of making treaties, and their in- 

* Camden's Imperial Hist. Eng., ii. 216; Trumbull, i. 248. 

+ See Wade's British Chronology, 220, 221. i Brancroft ; Allen. 



208 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

tercourse with the English ; the game that abounded there ; 
the noisome serpents that startled the traveler from his lonely 
trail with hiss or rattle — all afforded an inexhaustible field 
whence an ingenious mind could extract, in details of anec- 
dote and adventure, the honey of discourse ; and who was 
more likely to listen with a pleased ear to the agreeable nar- 
rator of such wonders, than the boyish, fun-loving king ? who 
more likely than Winthrop to cause the full, flashing eye of 
Charles Stuart to dance with merriment second only to that 
which flowed from the exhilaration of the wine-cup, or cause 
it to dilate sometimes with a pleased sympathy such as could 
merge for a moment the ambition of mistress Palmer in a 
softer passion, or tame to a feebler fluttering the gentle heart 
of Nelly Gwynne.* 

An English gentleman, however accomplished, who had 
lacked the interesting experience that afforded Winthrop the 
opportunity to excite the curiosity and play upon the imag- 
ination of his sovereign, might have failed, as a man of unre- 
fined manners, however well his memory might have been 
stored with facts relating to American life, certainly would 
have done ; for the monarch had inherited not a little of his 
father's fastidious refinement, though it was gradually soiled 
and finally lost in the debaucheries of a later day. 

With all these happy advantages, Winthrop might perhaps 
have failed in accomplishing his purpose but for a simple ap- 
peal to the filial piety of the king. He had in his keeping a 
ring of rare value, that had been presented to his grandmother 
by the unhappy Charles I. This ring, as if to set the seal 
to the favorable impression that he had made, he humbly 
proffered to his royal master. The king's heart melted at 
the sight of this touching memorial that brought to his mind the 
dark hours and sorrowful fate of the noble donor, who had 
most need of such a loyality as that gift betokened. With a 
gracefulness that rendered his munificejice doubly wel- 

* The influence of these artful courtesans over the opinions and acts of Charles 11. 
was often observable in public affairs. See Camden's Imperial Hist, of England, 
ii. 221 ; Wade, 229. 



[1662.] THE PATENTEES AND THE PATENT. 209 

come, he accepted the ring and granted the prayer of the 
colony.* 

On the 23d of April, 1662, letters patent under the great 
seal received the royal signature, giving to the petitioners 
the most ample privileges. f They confirmed in the patentees 
the title and jurisdiction of the whole tract of land granted 
to the earl of Warwick in free and common socage, and to 
their successors, forever. The names of the patentees in the 
charter were John Winthrop, John Mason, Samuel Wyllys, 
Henry Clarke, Mathew Allen, John Tapping, Nathan Gold, 
Richard Treat, Richard Lord, Henry Wolcott, John Talcott, 
Daniel Clarke, John Ogden, Thomas Wells, Obadiah Bruen, 
John Clarke, Anthony Hawkins, John Deming, and Matthew 
Canfield — nineteen in all — to whom, together with all the 
other freemen of Connecticut then existing, and who might 
afterwards be admitted electors or freemen to the end of time, 
were given the irrevocable privileges of being " one body 
corporate and politic in fact and name, by the name of the 
governor and company of the English colony of Connecticut 
in New England in America, and that by the same name 
they and their successors should have perpetual succession." 

By these letters patent they are made persons in law, may 
plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended, in all suits 
whatsoever ; may purchase, possess, lease, grant, demise and 
sell, lands, tenements, and goods in the same unrestricted 
manner as any of the king's subjects or corporations in Eng- 
land. They are annually to hold two general assemblies — 
one on the second Thursday in May, and the other on the 
second Thursday in October — to consist of the governor, 
deputy governor, and twelve assistants, with the more popu- 
lar element of two deputies from every town or city. 

The company or colonial corporation thus constituted, 
might choose a common seal, establish courts for the admin- 
istering of justice, make freemen, appoint officers, enact laws, 
impose fines, assemble the inhabitants in martial array for the 
common defence, and exercise martial law in all necessary 

* Trumbull, i. 248. ■}■ A copy of the charter is to be found in the appendix (B.) 

14 



210 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

emergencies. It is especially provided that all the subjects 
of the king within the colony shall enjoy all the privileges of 
free and natural subjects of the realm of England, and that 
the charter shall be construed most favorably for the benefit 
of the corporation. John Winthrop is named in it as the 
first governor, and John Mason deputy governor, and the 
other patentees whose names are mentioned are to be the 
first magistrates. All these appointees are to hold their 
offices until the people shall elect new ones in their places. 

Such, in its substance and main features, was the charter 
granted by Charles II. to the colony of Connecticut. Al- 
though it bore date the 23d of April, yet as nothing was 
known of it in Connecticut until several months afterwards, 
the regular routine of the government meanwhile went on 
under the old constitution. In May, the freemen met as 
usual, and held their election. Although the deepest anxiety 
must have pervaded the public mind in reference to the 
probable fate of Winthrop's mission, yet we find no traces 
of it upon our colonial records. The Court proceeds with 
its usual calmness and sobriety to provide for the domestic 
economy of the inhabitants, and to relieve the burdens that 
appeared to fall too heavily upon the weaker towns. 

The defenses of the colony were not forgotten, and effect- 
ual measures were taken to perfect its military organization. 
The distribution of the Bible among widows and children 
was at the same session made the subject of legislation.* 

At the General Court held on the 22d of July, the same 
silence is observed as to the petition. The king is not even 
incidentally mentioned. The people never made any con- 
fessions of loyality unless they considered themselves likely 
to reap some benefit from the humiliation. 
•\_ 

* On page 381 of J. H. Trumbull's Colonial Records will ba found an order 
of the General Court directing that the Bible sent to Goodwife Williams shall be 
delivered to Goodwife Harrison, " who engageth to this Court to give unto ye 
children of ye said Williams a bushel of wheat apiece as they shall come out of 
their time ; and John Xot doth engage to give e£\ch of ye children two shillings a 
piece as they come out of their time, to buy them Bibles." 



[1662.] ARRIVAL OF THE CHARTER. 211 

At what precise time the charter arrived in Connecticut is 
not known. Doubtless it must have been early in Septem- 
ber, as it appears that it was publicly shown to the New 
England Congress convened at Boston, on the 4th of Sep- 
tember.* 

The commissioners must have opened their eyes wide 
when " his majesty's letters patent under the broad seal of 
England were presented and read." 

On the 9th day of October, it was publicly read to the as- 
sembled freemen of Connecticut, and was declared to belong 
to them and their successors. The freemen immediately 
bore testimony of their gratitude to the king for this mark 
of his favor, and to the value that they placed upon it, by 
appointing Mr. Wyllys, Captain Talcott and Lieutenant 
Allen a committee to take it into their custody, under the 
solemnities of an oath administered to them by the General 
Assembly, binding them faithfully to keep this palladium of 
the rights of the people. At this session, the General As- 
sembly confirmed the old tenures of office and ratified all the 
laws of the colony that were not inconsistent with the 
charter.f 

At the same session, also, the General Assembly began to 
show a bolder front than ever before, in asserting the claims 
of Connecticut to jurisdiction over territories before that 
time claimed by other colonies. Notice was given to the 
inhabitants of Westchester that they were embraced within 
the boundaries of Connecticut, and that they would be ex- 
pected to conduct themselves as peaceable subjects. It was 
also resolved, that the people of Mistick and Pawcatuck 
should abstain from the exercise of all authority by virtue of 
any commission from any other colony, and that they should 
manage their affairs and elect their town officers in accord- 
ance with the laws of Connecticut. 

The news that the charter had arrived, and the very lib- 
eral terms of it, flew upon the wings of the wind. As Win- 
throp probably anticipated, it gave much additional impor- 
* See J. H. Trumbull, i. 384. (note.) t Colonial Records, i. 384, 385. 



212 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

tance to Connecticut. Here was an invaluable, sacred grant, 
defining the rights of the colony and placing them beyond 
the grasp of the royal prerogative. The people of Connecti- 
cut, whatever might be the fate of the other colonies, had the 
king's written pledge, under the broad seal of England, to 
vouch for them that they were entitled to all the rights and 
immunities of Englishmen. One after another, deputations 
from the remote border towns, upon Long Island and upon 
the main-land, came flocking to Hartford to tender their per- 
sons and property to the General Assembly, and praying to 
be admitted upon equal terms of citizenship. Whether these 
ambassadors represented the whole population of their respec- 
tive towns, or only petitioned in behalf of themselves, they 
were graciously received. A large portion of the inhabitants 
of Stamford and Greenwich begged to be made participators 
of the privileges conferred by the charter. A majority of the 
people of Southold, and some of the principal men of Guil- 
ford, were among the applicants. The clemency and gen- 
erosity of the king were upon every tongue in the colony. 
All the towns upon Long Island were compelled to submit. 
A Court was instituted at Southold, at which the magistrates 
of South and East Hampton were members.* Of coui'se 
the territory embraced in the charter included the entire col- 
ony of New Haven. Accordingly a committee was sent to 
New Haven to treat with the government there for an ami- 
cable union. Matthew Allyn, Samuel Wyllys, Stone, the 
chaplain of the Pequot expedition, and the renowned Thomas 
Hooker, were the gentlemen selected for this important and 
delicate embassy. f 

The committee repaired to New Haven with becoming dis- 
patch, and held a long and earnest conference with the author- 
ities and principal gentlemen there. They urged a friendly 
union under the patent on some fair terms. It was too 
mighty a matter to be disposed of at a single interview, and 
besides it was thought necessary that the proposition should 
be communicated to the freemen before any ultimate action 

* Thompson's Hi.st. Long Island. + Colonial Records, i. 388. 



[1662.] DIFFICULTIES WITH NEW HAVEN. 213 

was taken. The committee therefore presented the authori- 
ties of New Haven with a copy of the charter, accompanied 
by a very plausible and somewhat stately declaration, where- 
in they were careful to speak in terms of the greatest com- 
mendation of the privileges granted by the " large and ample 
patent," which they describe not as having been artfully pro- 
cured by the colony of Connecticut, but as having come to 
their hand. The declaration informs New Haven that the 
king has united the two colonies into one body politic, and 
reminds the freemen to whom it is made, that they are 
equally interested with the people of Connecticut in all the 
provisions of the royal patent, inviting them to a happy and 
peaceable union — " that inconveniences and dangers may be 
prevented, peace and truth strengthened and established, 
through our suitable subjection to the terms of the patent, 
and the blessing of God upon us therein." 

This paper I suppose to be the composition of Hooker. 
The conciliatory, half-reproachful reply I have no doubt was 
framed by Leete, whose gentle nature never showed the de- 
cision and strength that kiy hidden beneath its surface until 
all persuasive measures were exhausted.* 

The time had now arrived when the freemen of New Ha- 
ven were called upon to arouse themselves. On the 4th of 
November they convened to consult upon the best measures 
to be adopted. Excited and indignant as they were, they 
manifested a calm dignity that was never exhibited, I pre- 

* The reply of the authorities of New Haven was as follows : " We have re- 
ceived and perused your writings, and heard the copy read of his majesty's let- 
ters patent to Connecticut colony •, wherein, though we do not find the colony of 
New Haven expressly included, yet to show our desire that matters may be issued 
in the conserving of peace and amity, with righteousness between them and us, we 
shall communicate your writing, and a copy of the patent, to our freemen, and 
afterwards, with convenient speed, return their answer. Only we desire, that the 
issuing of matters may be respited, until we may receive fuller information from 
Mr. Winthrop, or satisfaction otherwise ; and that in the meantime, this colony 
may remain distinct, entire, and uninterrupted, as heretofore ; which we hope 
you will see cause lovingly to consent unto ; and signify the same to us with con- 
venient speed." 



214 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

sume, under like circumstances in any State of ancient 
Greece. Governor Leete produced the declaration of the 
Connecticut committee and the copy of the charter that they 
had left. The strange patent, that had thus suddenly dis- 
posed of their government and political existence, without 
giving them a premonition of the fate that awaited them, was 
read aloud in the hearing of the freemen ; and then, to allow 
them time for consideration, the Court took a recess for an 
hour and a half to meet again at the beat of the drum. 

At the sound of this primitive summons, the Court again 
assembled. Davenport — the venerable father of the colony 
that had been thus summarily passed over into other hands — 
Davenport, the man who was second to no other in New 
England for straight-froward honesty and moral courage — 
was the first to break the ominous silence. He rose up 
calmly, as his custom was, and though grown gray in the 
hard services of his calling, and bowed under the weight of 
recent bereavements, neither his hand nor his voice could 
have betrayed a sign of weakness, when he unfolded the pa- 
per containing his carefully written views and reasons upon 
this vital matter, and prefaced his reading with the charac- 
teristic remark, that " according to the occasion he would 
discharge the duty of his place." He did nobly discharge 
that duty. In his distinct and impressive way, he read to 
them " his own thoughts which he had set down in writing, 
and which he said he desired should remain his own until 
his hearers should be fully satisfied with them." 

When he had read the paper, he committed it to the keep- 
ing of the assembly and retired. Governor Leete prudently 
forbore to participate in the discussion. The debate was 
long and earnest, and after it was ended it was agreed that 
a committee made up of Mr. Law of Stamford, and the mag- 
istrates and elders, should draw up an answer to the declar- 
ation of Connecticut, that was to embrace and enlarge upon 
the following distinct propositions : 

L The wrong and sin of Connecticut in thus attempting 
to rob them of their independence and colonial existence. 



[1662.] REMONSTRANCE OF DAVENPORT. 215 

II. The propriety of suspending all further proceedings 
until Mr. Winthrop should return, or until they should other- 
wise obtain further information and satisfaction. 

III. That New Haven could of right do nothing without 
first consulting the other confederated colonies.* 

The committee was directed to present in their answer 
whatever arguments they could against the union, and if 
these should fail to bring about the intended result, they were 
ordered to prepare an address to the king, praying for relief. 
The document drawn up by this committee in obedience to 
the instructions of the freemen of New Haven, has such 
salient points and such a marked individuality, that no one 
can doubt that Davenport was the author of it.f There is a 
concealed and galling irony in the document that must have 
been intolerably provoking, while the facts as well as the 
deductions from them, are indeed unanswerable. The com- 
mittee say in substance, that whatever may be the purport 
of the charter, they have looked in vain to find in it any 
clause that prohibits the continuance of a distinct colonial 
government on the part of New Haven. The fact that not 
one of the patentees named in it belonged to New Haven, 
was to their minds strong corroborative evidence that neither 
they who petitioned for the patent, nor his majesty who 
granted it, intended that she should be embraced in it or af- 
fected by it, and that for aught that appeared in the charter 
they were still left at liberty to petition for the same privi- 
lieges that had been so recently bestowed upon Connecticut. 
" Yet," say the committee, " if it shall appear (after due and 

* The words of the reply are not here given literally, but only in substance a* 
found upon the New Haven Colonial Records. 

t Davenport was remarkable in that age of verbiage, for his terse, direct man- 
ner of expressing his thoughts in writing. There is a manliness and patrician 
bearing in this comprehensive state paper, that stamps its authorship upon it as 
with a seal. Whoever supposes tliat John Davenport can be set lightly aside by 
the flippant charge of narrow-mindedness and bigotry, had better study the his- 
tory of those times more faithfully, before he presumes to put his crude views up- 
on paper. There was indeed a mote in the eye of the old pioneer clergyman, but 
alas ! for the beam in that of the critic. 



216 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

full information of our State,) to have been his majesty's 
pleasure so to unite us as you understand the patent, we 
must submit according to God." The solemn covenants en- 
tered into under the confederation are then again alluded to, 
and the request urgently made, that New Haven may go on 
discharging the functions of a distinct colonial government, 
until '• either by the honored Mr. Winthrop, by the other 
confederates, or from his majesty," they may learn what 
construction should be given to the patent. 

The implied charge of a breach of faith contained in the 
following language is exceedingly severe. " This occasion 
[is] given before any conviction tendered or publication of 
the patent among us, or so much as a treaty with us in a 
christian, neighborly way. No pretense for our dissolution of 
government, till then, could rationally be imagined. Such 
carriage may seem to be against the advice and mind of his 
majesty in the patent, as also of your honored governor, and 
to cast reflection upon him." 

This letter bore date the 5th of November, 1662. Con- 
necticut made no reply to it, and in this she acted wisely, for 
no human ingenuity could have framed a successful answer 
to its stern truthfulness. 

On the 11th of March, 1663, the General Assembly met, 
and in a very pacific tone proceeded to appoint a committee 
to treat with New Haven in relation to the terms of the 
union. Deputy governor Mason was at the head of this 
committee. They proceeded to New Haven and attempted 
to hit upon some amicable mode of adjusting the difficulties. 
But the hot haste that the General Assembly had manifested 
in getting possession of Southold, Stamford and other towns 
belonging to New Haven, and establishing a government 
there, and the protection and fellowship that had been promised 
by Connecticut to the disaffected at Guilford, had inflicted a 
deep wound upon the colonial independence of New Haven, 
that nothing save a full and honorable restitution could be 
expected to heal. 

In this crisis of aflairs governor Leete called a special ses- 



[1663.] NEW HAVEISr STILL RESISTS. 217 

sion of the General Court to commence on the 6th of May. 
When the freemen were convened, they were asked if it 
was their pleasure, on account of relations existing between 
them and Connecticut, to make any alteration in respect to 
the time or manner of holding their election ? With one 
consent they answered " No." Had the negative been ut- 
tered by the lips of John Davenport himself, it could not 
have been more resolute. They further resolved, that a re- 
monstrance against the doings of the encroaching colony 
should be drawn up and sent to the General Assembly of 
Connecticut. This was accordingly done. This able paper, 
reciting the causes that induced the people of the colony to 
establish themselves in New England, and also giving a his- 
tory of the wrongs that they had recently suffered at the 
hands of their sister colony, protesting against those wrongs, 
and calling for redress, is also the composition of Davenport. 
It contains some passages of powerful and eloquent appeal, 
that my limits will not allow me to quote, nor indeed ought 
they to be presented in a fragmentary form. 

While these disorderly proceedings were going on in 
America, the agent of New Haven, sent to his majesty to peti- 
tion for his interference, arrived in England. Winthrop was 
still there, and when the state of things in the two colonies 
was made known to him, he undertook to be the surety of 
Connecticut, that New Haven should suffer no further wrong 
at her hands, and that if the union was to take place at all, 
it should be a voluntary one. In pursuance of this pledge, 
Winthrop, on the 3d of March, 16G3, wrote a letter to the 
deputy governor and company of Connecticut, informing 
them of the purport of the arrangement that he had made 
with the acjent of New Haven, and further stating; that be- 
fore he prayed out the charter, he had given the people of 
New Haven his assurance that their interests should in no 
way be compromised by the step that Connecticut was about 
to take. These pledges of his, made while he was acting as 
their agent, and in a manner speaking in their behalf, he 
earnestly begged them not to violate, but to abstain from all 



218 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

violence and from all encroachments upon the rights and 
territory of their sister colony. He dexterously intimated 
that the blame of what they had already done, was to be im- 
puted rather to his own negligence in not making those en- 
gagements known to them, than to any wanton usurpation 
on their part. He added, that if the General Assembly 
would wait until his return, he hoped to bring about the de- 
sired union by some amicable adjustment.* 

What strange infatuation had taken possession of Connec- 
ticut, I am unable to say. The General Assembly in July 
following laid claim to Westchester, and sent out a magis- 
trate from Connecticut with authority to lead the voters to a 
choice of officers, and to administer the proper oaths when 
chosen. The chartered colony also stretched out her hand 
over the Narragansett country, and appointed rulers over the 
inhabitants of Wickford. Disregarding the wishes of the 
governor thus decidedly expressed, and in defiance of the re- 
monstrance of the freemen of New Haven and their earnest 
appeal to the king, she followed up the contemplated union 
in the same hasty way in which it had been begun. 

On the 19th of August, another session of the General As- 
sembly was summoned, and a new committee appointed to 
treat not alone w^ith New Haven, but also with Milford, 
Guilford, and Branford, upon the terms of the union. If the 
committee failed to negotiate the matter amicably, they were 
instructed to read the charter publicly at New Haven, and 
proclaim to the people there that Connecticut could not fail 
to resent their attempts to maintain a separate jurisdiction, 
as it was clear that they were included within the limits 
of the patent ; and that the General Assembly must 
insist that New Haven, Milford, Guilford, Branford 
and Stamford surrender themselves to the jurisdiction of 
Connecticut. This committee, like the preceding one, 
eflfected nothing. 

In September, the Congress met at Boston, and the New 
Haven commissioners were received and acknowledged 

* See Gov. Winthrop's letter in Trumbull, i. 520, 521. 



[1663.] WINTHROP, LEETE, AND FENN. 219 

as the representatives of an independent colony. At this 
session New Haven prepared a complaint against Connecti- 
cut, involving a complete history of all proceedings under 
the charter that related to New Haven. Governor Winthrop, 
who had now returned from England, and Mr. John Talcott, 
in behalf of Connecticut, defended her course with such ar- 
guments as they could adduce. They said the complainants 
had no just grounds of accusation against the chartered col- 
ony, as she had never done them any wrong, and had always 
proposed a friendly settlement of the controversy by treaty. 

That this claim of Winthrop was at war with the matter 
contained in his own letter of the 3d of March, and not 
strictly in accordance with the facts in the case, I suppose 
nobody would attempt at this day to deny. However, I am 
unwilling that such a character as this great patriot has 
transmitted to posterity, should be thought to have left upon 
its surface a stain of dissimulation. He was anxious to con- 
ciliate the applicants, and in attempting to persuade them 
that they were unreasonable in their complaints, he only em- 
ployed the ordinary privileges of the advocate, and stated the 
views that his too partial mind had adopted, with such elo- 
quence and force as was natural to him. Besides, he may 
have arrived at different conclusions, on finding himself in 
the neighborhood of the excited people whom it was his duty, 
as far as he rightfully could, to justify and defend in the face 
of the whole world, from those that had been the basis of the 
letter that he had written from England, and of the assur- 
ances that he had then given to the agent of New Haven. 

The debate was very earnest and absorbing. Governor 
Leete and Benjamin Fenn — the one cautious and courtly, 
the other blunt and bold — resolutely met the arguments of 
the Connecticut commissioners, and did not find it a difficult 
task to procure a decree that the distinct colonial existence 
of New Haven should remain inviolate, that no encroach- 
ments should be made upon her jurisdiction, and that her 
power should continue entire, as one of the confederates, 
" until such time as in an orderly way it shall be otherwise 



220 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

disposed of." No other decision could have been antici- 
pated from the Congress, for the jealousy of Massachusetts 
and of the other associated colonies against Connecticut, 
since it had first been made known that she had become in- 
vested with privileges unknown to themselves, knew no 
bounds. Aside from the just claims of New Haven, how 
was it to be borne by the metropolitan colony of Massachu- 
setts, who had always patronized Connecticut as her younger 
and portionless sister, that she should presume all at once to 
give herself such matronly airs, and place herself upon a royal 
matrimonial alliance that afforded such a striking contrast to 
her Arcadian manners and humble childhood ? 

Governor Stuyvesant, likewise indignant at the grasping 
ambition of Connecticut evinced by extending her jurisdic- 
tion over Westchester and the towns adjacent, appeared at 
Boston and complained of the encroachments made by her 
upon his territories. Winthrop and Talcott begged that, as 
no demand had been made upon the General Assembly and 
consequently they were not instructed how to make answer 
to his complaint, that the consideration of the affair might be 
postponed until the next meeting of the Congress. The mat- 
ter was accordingly deferred. 

On the 8th of October, the General Assembly of Connecti- 
cut again convened to consider and discuss the difficulties 
that were impending. An act was passed, wherein the as- 
sembly declare their dissatisfaction with the plantations of 
New Haven, Milford, Guilford, Stamford and Branford, be- 
cause they persist in maintaining a government distinct 
from that authorized by the charter. A committee was at the 
same session again appointed to treat with those towns, and 
debate the matters in dispute. " If," say the assembly, " they 
can rationally make it appear that they have such power, and 
that we have wronged them according to their complaints, 
we shall be ready to attend them with due satisfaction."* 

It will be observed that this diplomatic piece of legislation 
is very far from recognizing even pretended jurisdiction on 

* Colonial Records, i. 415. 



[1663.] GENERAL COURT OF NEW HAVEN. 221 

the part of New Haven, as a separate colony. On the other 
hand, the plantations are individually spoken of, and severally 
treated as independent of each other, and as constituting in- 
tegral portions of Connecticut under the charter. 

At a special session in March, Thomas Pell was authorized 
in behalf of the colony and with the design of securing pos- , 
session and title to all the lands included within the bound- 
aries of the patent, to buy of the Indians all that large tract 
lying between Westchester and Hudson's i-iver, and " the 
waters which make the Manhadoes an island."* The Gen- 
eral Assembly also lent a willing ear to the petitions of those 
plantations that were situated upon the western extremity 
of Long Island, and took them under the protection of Con- 
necticut, for the charter included the adjoining islands within 
her limits. It was also resolved that Hammonasset should 
be a town. During the same month, twelve planters, most 
of them from Hartford, Windsor and Guilford, took up their 
abode there. Out of respect to Mr. Grisvvold, one of the 
principal proprietors of the town, it was afterwards named 
Killingworth, a corruption of the historical name of Kenil- 
worth, the birthplace of the Griswolds of Connecticut. 

Meanwhile New Haven continued to struggle against her 
fate. On the22d of October, her General Court convened, and 
Governor Leete hastened to present to the freemen the details 
of all that had passed, and to take their advice. The members 
of the Court reviewed the behavior of Connecticut towards 
them, the rights of government that she persisted in asserting 
over them, the disturbances that she fomented in the several 
towns, by giving encouragement to malcontents and by 
sowing the seeds of sedition broadcast within their borders — 
and with unyielding courage resolved "that no treaty be made 
by this colony with Connecticut before such acts of power 
exerted by them upon any of our towns, be revoked or re- 
called, according to the honorable Mr. Winthrop's letter urg- 
ing the same, the commissioners' determination and our fre- 
quent desires." With one consent they resolved to petition 

* Colonial Records, i. 418 ; Brodhead, i. 733. 



222 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

the king for a bill of exemption from the government of Con- 
necticut, and voted to raise three hundred pounds by a tax 
to carry out this object. They took another step of a very 
decided character, that could hardly fail to hasten the crisis. 
They ordered that in all the towns belonging to their juris- 
diction, the proper authorities should issue warrants to at- 
tach the personal estate of those who had refused or should 
thereafter refuse to pay the taxes by law imposed upon them. 
In these gloomy circumstances they also sought the divine 
aid, and appointed a day of fasting and prayer throughout 
the colony. 

I have said that the doom of this little republic was im- 
pending. How could it well be otherwise ? A powerful 
colony in the field against her, clad in the impenetrable pan- 
oply of the royal charter, reflecting far and wide a baleful 
light that struck blind for a time even the proud eye of the 
colony upon the Bay, and frightened little Plymouth "from 
her propriety ;" an empty treasury, and rebellion springing 
up in the midst of her own plantations — how could it be oth- 
erwise ? A more wretched state of confusion and enmity 
can hardly be imagined. The moment that the tax-gath- 
erers of New Haven attempted to put in force the decree of 
her General Court, and attach the property of those who re- 
fused to do their part towards defraying the expenses of the 
government, the recusants fled to Connecticut for protection, 
and were received by her with open arms. The govern- 
ment was so poor that it could not even pay the ordinary 
salaries to its officers. 

When the officers began to collect the taxes by force, civil 
war was the immediate result. 

John Rossiter and his son, of Guilford, who had refused to 
submit to the authorities at New Haven and who had been 
punished with some severity for their offenses, now fled to 
Hartford for redress. They readily procured two magis- 
trates, a constable, and some private volunteers from Con- 
necticut, who, armed with muskets, repaired to Guilford and 
arrived there on the evenino; of the 30th of December. In 



[1664.] "new HAVEX CASE STATED." 223 

the night they fired off their guns in the town and alarmed 
the inhabitants to such a degree that governor Leete was 
obliged to send messengers to Branford and New Haven for 
assistance. Both these towns, startled from their sleep in 
the dead of the night by this executive summons, immediate- 
ly sent forward an armed force for the relief of Guilford. 
Governor Leete and the magistrates conducted the affair 
with such prudence that no injury resulted from this violence. 
The Connecticut officers, who had come out upon this noc- 
turnal errand, contented themselves with remonstrating 
against the conduct of the authorities of New Haven, in lay- 
ing taxes upon those who had placed themselves under the 
protection of Connecticut. They desired that the matter 
might be postponed for further consideration.* 

On the 7th of January 1664, governor Leete called a 
special court at New Haven. He opened the session by 
stating to the Court what troubles had grown out of the 
order for the distraining of taxes, and with what earnestness 
the magistrates from Connecticut had called upon New Ha- 
ven to refrain from the exercise of this authority, which, 
they claimed, was in violation of the rights of the citizens of 
Connecticut. The governor asked the Court carefully to 
consider this demand. They made answer that it had proved 
idle to attempt to make treaties with Connecticut, and that 
they were resolved to carry on no further negotiations with 
her, until she should have restored to New Haven the citi- 
zens that she had unlawfully seduced from their allegiance, 
and still continued to protect. 

Mr. Davenport and Mr. Street were appointed a commit- 
tee to make a new statement of the grievances of New Ha- 
ven and transmit it in writing to Connecticut. These gen- 
tlemen entered with alacrity upon the discharge of this duty. 
The result was, a paper in the nature of a remonstrance of 
singular ability. It was called " The New Haven Case 
Stated," and is written in Davenport's best manner. In all 
our New England colonial papers, I have not found a more 

* Trumbull, i. 263. 



224 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

touching and eloquent narrative, nor have I ever seen a more 
convincing argument. UnUke it predecessors from the same 
vigorous pen, it is free from sarcastic allusions and has a 
mournful strain of accusation, such as we might suppose a 
martyr at the stake would address to his persecutors. It has 
a vitality and force that is indeed refreshing to one whose 
eye has been long exposed to the dull pages of records and 
state documents of the seventeenth century, whose blinding 
words, like clouds of sand, seem to sweep along over an inter- 
minable desert.* This paper, however, produced no change 
in the policy of Connecticut. 

On the 12th of May 1664, the General Assembly con- 
vened, and again asserted their claims to Long Island and 
appointed officers at Hempstead, Jamaica, Newtown, Oyster 
Bay, Flushing, and all the towns upon the western extremity 
of the Island, t 

In the same month the freemen met at New Haven and 
held a general election. They reappointed Leete governor ; 
William Jones was made deputy governor. These gentle- 
men were also chosen commissioners to the Congress next 
to convene at Hartford. The usual number of magistrates 
was elected, but two of them, Mr. Treat and Mr. Nash, de- 
clined to accept the place, for they foresaw that the down- 
frll of New Haven was at hand. So depressed were the 
hearts of the freemen, that no business appears to have been 
done at this Court, as it left no records of its proceedings. 

On the 12th of March 1664, the duke of York ob- 
tained a patent of a vast tract of country lying to the north 
of New England as it was then defined ; and what was more 
alarming still to New Haven, including " all that island or 
islands commonly called by the general name or names of 
Meitowax, or Long Island, situate and being towards the 
west of Cape Cod and the narrow Nighgansets, abutting up- 

* This state paper may be found entire in the Appendix to this volume, marked 
(D.) A portion of it has been published before by the author of " Historical Dis- 
courses." 

+ Colonial Records, i. 428. 429. 



[1G64.] ARRIVAL OF COL. NICHOLS. 225 

on the main-land, between the two rivers there called or 
known by the several names of Connecticut and Hudson's 
river, and all the lands from the west side of Connecti- 
cut river to the east side of Delaware Bay." Massachu- 
setts and Plymouth, too, had much occasion to be alarmed, 
for Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and all the islands con- 
tiguous to them, that studded the main ocean, were embraced 
in the patent. 

Thus was the whole territory of New Haven with a large 
part of Connecticut granted out to this royal subject. 

The duke lost no time in taking possession of his new es- 
tate. Doubtless a main object of this patent was the reduc- 
tion of New Netherlands, and an armed fleet soon sailed for 
the American coast, under the command of Colonel Richard 
Nichols, who was instructed to bring all the Dutch settle- 
ments on the continent to subjection. He was further au- 
thorized, in conjunction with Sir Robert Carr, George Cart- 
wright and Samuel Maverick, Esquires, to visit the New 
England colonies and to hear and determine all controversies 
that existed between them.* 

On the 23d of July, Nichols arrived in Boston harbor. He 
made known to the colonies his errand and in the name of 
the king, called upon New England to raise troops to assist 
in reducing New Netherlands. He also dispatched letters 
to Governor Winthrop of Connecticut, inviting him to meet 
him at the western extremity of Long Island for consultation. 
Accompanying the commission of Nichols and others, came 
a very gracious letter from the king, bearing date, Whitehall, 
April 23, 1664, and addressed to the governor and company 
of Connecticut. Whether it can be fairly inferred from the 
tenor of this letter, that opposition to the union on the part 
of New Haven had been anticipated, as an event likely to 
happen, at the time when the Connecticut patent was granted, 
I leave it for the reader to decide. At any rate, the first 

* See Brodhead, i. 726, 735, 736; Hutchinson, i. 211; Trumbull, i. 266. 
This commission may be found at length in Hutchinson, i. App. XV. and in 
Hazard, ii. 638, 639. 

15 



226 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

sentence of the royal letter seems calculated to inspire con- 
fidence rather than terror in the hearts of those to whom it 
was written. It begins as follows : 

"Charles, R. 

" Trusty and well beloved we greet you well, 
havinsf, according to the resolution we declared to Mr. John 
Winthrop at the time when we renewed your charter, now 
sent these persons of known abilities and affections to us — 
that is to say, Colonel Richard Nichols, Sir Robert Carr, 
Knight, George Cartwright, Esq., and Samuel Maverick, Esq., 
our commissioners, to visit those our several colonies and 
plantations in New England, to the end that we may be the 
better informed of the state and welfare of our good subjects, 
whose prosperity is very dear to us. We can make no ques- 
tion but that they shall find that reception from you which 
may testify your respect to us from whom they are met for 
your good."* 

Whatever construction governor Winthrop may have 
given to this document, he readily complied with the request 
of Colonel Nichols, and, in company with several of the magis- 
trates and principal gentlemen of Connecticut, soon joined 
him at the place designated. 

The time had now arrived when the dominion of the 
Dutch in America was about to be extinguished forever. 
On the 20th of August, with a formidable English fleet and 
armament to give weight to the summons. Colonel Nichols 
demanded the surrender of the town and forts upon the 
island of Manhadoes. Governor Stuyvesant was by no 
means prepared to obey this summons, and unable as he was 
in the disordered state of his province, to make a successful 
stand against the invaders, he was still resolved not to yield 
without giving the British commander a taste of his well 
known skill in diplomacy. Instead, therefore, of lowering 
the Dutch colors, his excellency drew up a formidable state- 
ment, and I believe a truthful one, of the title of the States 
General to the country then in their possession in America. 

* See Appendix, where this entire letter may be found marked (C.) 



[1664.] WINTHROP AND STUYVESANT. 227 

With the stately politeness that marks all his official corres- 
pondence, he said that he had no doubt that had the king of 
England been aware of the claims of the Dutch, he never 
would have taken such measures to extinguish them. In 
conclusion, he assured the British commissioners " that he 
should not submit to his demands, nor fear any evils but such 
as God in his Providence should inflict upon him." 

Colonel Nichols had offered to the inhabitants the most 
perfect protection of life, liberty, and property, provided the 
town and fort were surrendered as he demanded. The bur- 
gomasters explained to the people the terms proposed by 
Nichols. This did not satisfy them. They insisted on see- 
ing the document itself Stuyvesant went in person and ex- 
plained to the assembled burghers the impropriety of exhibit- 
ing it to the public. It would be disapproved of, he said, in 
the Fatherland ; it would discourage the people. But the 
citizens prevailed, and finally procured a sight of the paper. 

Colonel Nichols now wrote a second letter to Winthrop, 
begging him to wait upon Stuyvesant and assure him that if 
he would surrender, the most liberal provisions should be 
made for the Dutch. The terms of his proposal were fully 
detailed in this second letter. Provided with so favorable a 
chart to guide his negotiations, Winthrop, under a flag of 
truce, repaired to the city, and, presenting his letter to Stuy- 
vesant outside of the fort, begged him to surrender. Stuyves- 
ant refused, but, retiring within the fort, he opened the letter 
and then read it in presence of the burgomasters, who asked 
that its contents might be made public. Stuyvesant de- 
clined to comply with the request. The burgomasters grew 
loud and clamorous, and at last, Stuyvesant, in a fit of passion, 
tore the letter in pieces. The enraged citizens now left 
their work at the palisades, and flew to the Stadt Huys. A 
committee was chosen from their number to wait upon Stuy- 
vesant and demand the letter. "The letter!" shouted the 
burgomasters. "The letter, the letter!" reiterated the mob. 
Nothing else would pacify them. Stuyvesant was obliged 
at last to gather up the fragments of the mutilated paper, 



228 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

and give a copy of it to the burgomasters for their in- 
spection. 

When it was found on what favorable terms the capitula- 
tion was proposed, solicitations poured in upon Stuyvesant 
from all quarters, begging him to surrender. Still he kept 
his ground. At last Nichols ordered Capt. Hyde, who com- 
manded the squadron, to reduce the fort. Two of the ships 
now landed their forces. The others sailed in front of the 
fort, and anchored close at hand. The undaunted Stuyves- 
ant, while they were passing the fortification, stood upon one 
of its angles and watched them. A guard with a lighted 
match in hand, stood near by, waiting the orders of the gov- 
ernor, who with difficulty could be dissuaded from commenc- 
ing an attack that must have resulted in the total discom- 
fiture of the garrison and in much bloodshed. He finally 
left the fort and went into the city to oppose the landing of 
the English troops. He now, as a last resort, sent a deputa- 
tion to Nichols, with a letter, in which he said, that although 
he felt it to be his duty to " stand the storm," yet he was 
willing to try what arrangement could be made. " To-mor- 
row," said Nicholas, " I will speak with you at Manhattan." 
" Friends will be welcome, if they come in a friendly man- 
ner," replied the ambassadors. " I shall come with ships and 
soldiers," was the stern answer — "raise the white flag of 
peace at the fort, and then something may be considered." 

Thus beset by his friends and pressed by his enemies, the 
brave Peter Stuyvesant was compelled to capitulate ; and 
yet, said he, in answer to the suplications of the women and 
children who thronged about him, " I would much rather be 
carried out dead."* 

Thus was the Dutch power in America annihilated. I 
suppose no good man, who knows the facts, will be likely to 
attempt a justification of this aggressive war, condemned by 
Camden, and acknowledged by Clarendon to have been 
commenced "without a shadow of justice." 

* Trumbull, i. 266, 268 ; Holmes, i. 334 ; Brodhead, i. 738, 741 ; Smith's 
Hist, of N. York, p. 10, 12, 14, 22, &c. 



[1664.] THE CONTROVERSY CONTINUED, 229 

Scarcely had the royal commissioners sailed out of Boston 
harbor for New Amsterdam, when Mr. Whiting of Connec- 
ticut, who was at Boston during their stay at that port, 
hastened to New Haven to inform the authorities there how 
loftily the king's functionaries carried themselves, in what 
danger the colonies all were, and urging the people of New 
Haven to throw themselves into the arms of Connecticut 
without delay, to assist her in defending the liberties and 
boundaries named in the charter. 

Governor Leete, on the 11th of August, called a General 
Court, and laid open to the freemen the intelligence thus re- 
ceived. A long and serious debate ensued. It was quite 
obvious that the magistrates and leading gentlemen were 
most of them disposed to yield, if not to the solicitations of 
Connecticut, at least to the urgent necessities that pressed 
upon them. But the people generally were still averse to the 
union. It was finally resolved " that if Connecticut should 
come and assert her claim, they would submit until the meet- 
ing of the commissioners of the united colonies." 

On the 1st of September, the New England Congress con- 
vened at Hartford. The commissioners from New Haven 
took their seats in that body for the last time. After a care- 
ful hearing, the Congress decided that " although the Court 
did not approve of the manner in which Connecticut had 
proceeded, yet they earnestly pressed a speedy and amicable 
union of the two colonies." 

In conformity with the advice of the Congress, governor 
Leete, on the 14th of the same month, called another Gen- 
eral Court. He placed before them the reasons urged by 
Connecticut, and the advice of the united colonies. The 
struggle was protracted and bitter. The pi'incipal opposition 
came from New Haven and Branford,* where Davenport 
and Pierson held an almost absolute sway over the inhabi- 
tants, and especially over the members of the churches, who 

* The Rev. Mr. Pierson of Branford, and almost his entire congregation, 
were so dissatisfied with the union, that they soon removed to Newark, New 
Jersey. Hubbard, c. 41 ; Holmes, i. 338 ; Hazard, ii. 520. 



230 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

were determined to keep the hem of their garments pure 
from the anticipated stains of the democracy in Connecticut, 
that allowed men to enjoy the rights of voters and hold any 
offices of trust without the qualification of church member- 
ship. Nor could the uncompromising Davenport reflect 
without tears that the city laid out by himself and Eaton, 
his bosom friend, and adorned as the capital of a prosperous 
republic, should thus be shorn of its metropolitan honors and 
degraded into a provincial town. 

Davenport had been the father of the state, and it was 
like the blotting out of his own existence were he to consent 
that the insignia of republican authority should be carried 
from the sacred spot where he had first deposited them. Be- 
sides he had committed himself against this measure, and 
Davenport was one of those men who will die rather than be 
driven from a position when once they have taken it. He 
held the church in his hand, and the members of the church 
constituted the state. Desperately he disputed the ground, 
inch by inch, against those who contended for the union, and 
again succeeded in preventing a vote in favor of the measure. 

Connecticut now appears to have begun to be thoroughly 
alarmed for herself The duke of York's claim threatened, 
notwithstanding the loyality of Connecticut, to dismember 
her territory, and the duke and dutchess of Hamilton were in 
the act of prosecuting their claims to an old grant, that ap- 
peared likely to interfere with the colony. This matter was 
also referred to the royal commissioners. Besides, the dis- 
cussions in the New Haven plantations were like an epidemic, 
that they might not always be able to confine within such 
narrow boundaries. The wise men of the colony, had there- 
fore as much as they could well do to keep the little vessel 
afloat with the most skillful pilotage. But they were equal 
to the emergency. 

In October, the General Assembly, with a liberality as 
bland as if it had welled up from the heart of the colony, 
voted to make the king's commissioners a present of five 
hundred bushels of corn. At the same time, they appointed 



[1664.] SERVICES OF WINTHROP. 231 

a committee of men of great ability to settle the boundaries 
between the colony and the duke of York, and another to 
agree upon the lines that were to divide them from Massa- 
chusetts and Rhode Island. They also charged these com- 
mittees to give up no part of the lands included in the char- 
ter limits.* A third committee of three gentlemen, at the 
head of whom was the Hon. Samuel Sherman, was appointed, 
with instructions to repair to New Haven, and, " in his maj- 
esty's name to require the inhabitants of New Haven, Mil- 
ford, Branford. Guilford and Stamford, to submit to the gov- 
ernment established by his majesty's previous grant to this 
colony, and to receive their answer." This committee was 
further ordered by the General Assembly to declare all the 
freemen in these towns free of the corporation of Connecticut, 
and to admit such others as they should find qualified, and 
administer the freeman's oath to them. They were directed 
also to proclaim in the hearing of the people there, that the 
General Assembly had clothed Leete, Jones, Gilbert, Treat, 
Law, Fenn, and Crane, with the authority of magistrates. f 
The committee faithfully executed the trust. Whatever 
alarm may have pervaded the public mind in Connecticut as 
to the boundary question, I do not think that Winthrop could 
have labored under any very oppressive apprehensions in re- 
gard to it. He had rendered important services to the king 
and the duke of York by his presence and councils at Man- 
hattan, and had been instrumental in bringing about without 
bloodshed, an achievment that was even then understood to 
contribute much to the power of the British sceptre ; al- 
though no human foresight could at that time have had any 
thing more than an imperfect glimpse of that peerless city 
that was, within the next century and three quarters, to rise 
up like a glorious vision upon the brink of the little river 
whose waters, in the simple language of the General Assem- 
bly of Connecticut, " make Manhadoes an island." Besides, 
Winthrop knew the nature of the king, and perhaps was by 
this time not without some knowedge — for he read character 

* Colonial Records, i. 435. t Colonial Records, i. 437. 



232 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

with an intuitive keenness — of the views and intentions of 
Nichols and the other commissioners upon the boundary- 
question. He had also, too, a thorough knowledge of the 
coast, and too practical a turn of mind, not to be aware that 
it was better for Connecticut to give up her claim to Long 
Island and Delaware, and have an unbroken domain upon 
the sea-shore, with fixed limits, and of sufficient size to be 
active without being unwieldy, than to divide her energies 
to maintain a feeble authority over a small and scattered popu- 
lation. Hence, I am not sure that he was much averse to 
the decision of the commissioners, when, on the 30th of No- 
vember, they declared it to be as follows : 

" That the southern bounds of his majesty's colony of Con- 
necticut, is the sea, and that Long Island is to be under the 
government of his royal highness, the duke of York, as is ex- 
pressed by plain words in the said patents respectively. We 
also order and declare, that the creek or river called Mama- 
roneck, which is reputed to be about twelve miles to the east 
of Westchester, and a line drawn from the east point or 
side, where the fresh water falls into the salt, at high-water 
mark, north northwest, to the line of Massachusetts, be the 
western bounds of the said colony ; and the plantations ly- 
ing westward of that creek, and line so drawn, to be under 
his royal highness' government ; and all plantations lying 
eastward of that creek and line, to be under the government 
of Connecticut."* 

This decision put an end to the long struggle between 
Connecticut and New Haven. 

On the 13th of December, the freemen of New Haven, 
held their last General Court. It was very thinly attended, 
but it adopted with one consent the following resolutions : 

" 1. That, by this act or vote, we be not understood to 
justify Connecticut's former actings, nor any thing disorderly 
done by their people, on such accounts. 

" 2. That, by it, we be not apprehended to have any hand 
in breaking or dissolving the confederation. 

* Trumbull, i. 273. 



[1G64.] THE UNION EFFECTED. 233 

" 3. Yet, in loyality to the king's majesty, when an au- 
thentic copy of the determination of his majesty's commis- 
sioners is pubHshed, to be recorded with us, if thereby it shall 
appear to our committee, that we are, by his majesty's au- 
thority, now put under Connecticut patent, we shall submit, 
by a necessity brought upon us, by the means of Connecti- 
cut aforesaid : but with a salve jure of our former rights and 
claims, as a people, who have not yet been heard in point 
of plea."* 

Thus the colony of New Haven, having drawn the folds 
of her mantle about her, as if to prepare herself to die with 
the dignity that became her, found, with a pleased surprise, 
that union was not annihilation, and in the arms of her elder 
sister, whom she learned at last both to forgive and to love, 
"lay down to pleasant dreams." 

* Trumbull, 1. 274. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE REGICIDES. 

The restoration of Charles II. was the result of a com- 
promise between all the factions that had participated in the 
struggles that preceded it. Indeed, some of the most dis- 
tinguished opposers of the tyranny of Charles I., and some 
of the most faithful adherents of Cromwell, were indispensa- 
ble agents in hastening a result that filled England with jubi- 
lee and awakened as lively anticipations as had ever swelled 
the bosom of a nation. 

Desirous of gaining the favor of all parties, Charles had 
promised to be forgiving to all who were disposed to return 
to their allegiance, and at Breda had proffered an indemnity 
to all criminals save those whom the parliament should ex- 
cept.* As far as his fickle nature was capable of gratitude, 
he certainly entertained it towards those who had aided in 
his return. The presbyterians as well as the royalists were 
admitted into his counsels and had their share of the gifts 
that were at his disposal. He created Annesly, earl of An- 
glesey ; Ashley Cooper, lord Ashley ; and Dengil Hollis, lord 
Mollis. He also made the good earl of Manchester his lord 
chamberlain ; lord Say, his privy seal ; and stretched his lib- 
erality so far as to appoint two presbyterian clergymen, 
Calamy and Baxter, to the place of chaplains to the king. 
He created Montague, earl of Sandwich; his friend Monk, 
duke of Albemarle ; Sir William Maurice, secretary of state ; 
Sir Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon, lord chancellor and 
prime minister. He raised Ormond from the rank of a mar- 

* For a full aceomit of the restoration and of the character of Charles II., con- 
sult Camden's " Imperial History of England," chapters vi and vii. This noble 
work is so difficult to be had, that few but the learned can have access to it. 
Whoever among our American publishers has the courage to furnish the public 
with a cheap edition of it, will be doubly paid — in the consciousness of having 
done a benevolent act, and in the pleasant personal experience of havmg added 
to his pecuniary resources. 




Presidentrof YfCLe College from 177?" to 17.95 . 



y 



[1660.] JUDGES EXECUTED IN ENGLAND. 235 

quis to that of a duke, and made him steward of the household ; 
while the earl of Southampton was appointed high treasurer.* 

Policy, doubtless, held with gratitude a divided empire in 
the king's breast ; but he is entitled to the credit of following 
good advice at first, whatever may have been the follies and 
debaucheries that afterwards made his court so shamefully 
eminent. 

The commons were disposed to have past offences forgot- 
ten, but the lords were not so easily pacified. In relation to 
the unhappy men who had sat in judgment upon the king's 
father, and who were called then, as they still are, regicides, 
the lords were especially intolerant, and encouraged the 
king to except every one of them from the general pardon. 
Thus advised, the willing monarch, almost as soon as he had 
seated himself firmly upon the throne of his ancestors, issued 
a proclamation announcing that such of the judges of Charles 
I. as did not within fourteen days, surrender themselves up 
as prisoners, should receive no pardon. Of course great alarm 
was awakened in the hearts of the regicides and of their 
friends by this announcement. Nineteen delivered them- 
selves up, and awaited the event with the deepest anxiety. 
Others fled, and were fortunate enough to elude pursuit and 
escape beyond the seas ; and others were arrested in their 
flight. Ten of these unhappy men, whose worst crime — if 
they were guilty of any — was, that they partook too deeply 
of the same maddening cup that turned even the philosophic 
brain of Milton, were executed, and the remains of some of 
the principal actors in that too fearful tragedy, were treated 
with profane indignities, such as have not since that day dis- 
graced the name of English freedom. f Two of these, Ed- 
ward Whalley and William Goffe, arrived in Boston in July, 
1660. John Dixwell came afterwards. 

* Camden's Imperial Hist, of Eiig., 216. 

t The judges who were executed were Harrison, Scot, Sorope, Jones, Cle- 
ments, and Carew ; besides Cook, the solicitor ; Hugh Peters, the chaplain ; and 
Hacker and Axtell, who commanded the guard. The bones of Cromwell, Brad- 
shaw, Ireton and Pride, were dug up, hanged at Tj'burn, and then buried be- 
neath the gallows! Camden, p. 217 ; Wade, p. 222. 



236 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

As it was not known at that time what disposition would be 
made of them, and as it was beheved that they would be em- 
braced in the general act of indemnity, they were treated by 
Governor Endicott and the other principal gentlemen of Bos- 
ton, with all the marks of respect that were thought to be- 
long to men who had filled high places in the government, 
and whose venerable features and soldierly bearing com- 
ported so well with their high reputation, as eminent civilians 
and military leaders. They were constantly entertained at 
the houses of the more opulent, and from the curiosity that 
their presence awakened in the public mind, all their move- 
ments were watched with a lively interest. They soon went 
to Cambridge, where they stayed until February. While 
there, they openly attended upon public worship on the Sab- 
bath and on other days, and made no effort to diguise from 
the people who and what they were. 

As soon, however, as it was made known in Boston in 
what light the king looked upon the official conduct of these 
men, and that they were regarded as traitors, a large share of 
those who had claimed to be their friends, avoided them as 
if they had been infected with some contagious disease. 

Finding the indulgence and favor of the authorities of 
Massachusetts thus suddenly turned into loyality, and learn- 
ing that instead of caressing them, Endicott had called a 
court of magistrates to apprehend them and deliver them 
over to the executioner, they took advantage of the friendly 
disposition manifested towards them by some of the magis- 
trates and fled out of the jurisdiction of that colony, and 
sought a refuge in New Haven among the old and tried ad- 
herents of Oliver Cromwell. They passed through Hartford 
on their way and arrived in New Haven on the 27th of 
March 1661, where they were received by Davenport with 
open arms. Davenport entertained them at his house with 
the most kindly hospitality. They here found themselves 
among congenial spirits, and went fearlessly from house to 
house and discoursed freely of the thrilling incidents that had 
been crowded into their lives, and could be reproduced at 



[1661.] THE ROYAL MANDATE ARRIVES. 237 

will, divested of their more forbidding outlines, as the painter 
can choose the colors that best represent to his eye the image 
that floats, soul-like, in the atmosphere of his mental vision. 
The sieges of strong castles, the busy scenes and earnest 
fears that lent their haggard expression to the fires that lit up 
the camp of civil war ; the awful details of the battle of Dun- 
bar, that seem still to speak in the tides of the German ocean 
as they dash against the rocky coast ; the imprisonment of 
Charles I. at Hampton court; his escape from the hands of 
Whalley ; his subsequent captivity ; his uncompromising 
silence when brought to trial by his subjects ; his heroic 
death ; the stern and vigorous policy that followed that 
event; in short, all the doublings and windings of a self-de- 
luding ambition, exemplified in the life of Cromwell, from the 
humble pleasures of agriculture to the magnificent funeral in 
Westminster Abbey, afforded them an inexhaustible theme 
for conversation and reflection. They were grave, sedate 
men, and bore themselves with a noble self-control and a 
manly cheerfulness that bespoke no secret upbraidings of 
conscience. It does not appear that they ever felt any such 
accusations or entertained a doubt as to the part that they 
had taken in the transactions that preceded or followed the 
king's death. 

Meanwhile the royal mandate reached Massachusetts, re- 
quiring the governor to arrest the fugitives. With this 
requisition, came a detailed account of the death of ten of the 
regicides, and of the disposition of the court towards those 
who entertained the survivors who were excluded from the 
act of indemnity. The governor and magistrates began to 
be seriously alarmed. They had already made a feigned 
search for the exiles, and failed to find them, as it was ex- 
pected that they would do when they began. But now they 
thought it best to evince their loyality in earnest. They 
therefore responded to the requisition by giving to two zeal- 
ous young royalists, Thomas Kellond and Thomas Kirk, a 
commission in the nature of a special deputation, authorizing 
them to go through the colonies as far as Manhattan, and 



288 HISTOEY OF CONNECTICUT. 

search for Whalley and Goffe with diUgence.* If they found 
them they were ordered to arrest them. Armed with this paper, 
and stimulated with the prospects of promotion that they 
counted on as certain to crown their success, these ambitious 
pursuivants eagerly started in quest of the alluring game. 

They hastened to Hartford and waited upon Governor 
Winthrop, who, as they afterwards made report, nobly en- 
tertained them ; and, as he knew that the judges were not 
within his jurisdiction, he very readily gave a warrant 
to Kellond and Kirk to apprehend them within the limits of 
Connecticut. Winthrop appeared to be quite earnest in the 
cause, but he assured them that " the colonels made no stay 
in Connecticut, but went directly to New Haven." 

The pursuers took leave of the governor and repaired to 
the colon}^ of New Haven with all dispatch. The next day 
they reached Guilford, where they stopped to provide them- 
selves with a new warrant ; for deputy Governor Leete 
resided there, who was then the acting governor. 

They soon made Leete acquainted with the object of their 
visit, and informed him that they had good cause to believe 
that Whalley and Goffe were then at New Haven. They 
begged him to give them a warrant similar to that furnished 
them by Governor Winthrop, and to provide them with 
horses to speed them upon their journey and men to help 
them to make the arrest. The governor appeared to be 
much surprised at this request. He had not seen the 
colonels, he said, in nine weeks, and he did not believe 
they were at New Haven. He took the papers from the 
hands of the pursuivants and began to read them aloud, in a 
tone so alarmingly audible that their loyalty was shocked, 

* This is the foi-m of the statement made by Stiles, Trumbull, and other author- 
ities, and the mandate from the king unquestionably ordered the arrest of the 
fugitives wherever they might be found. The governor and council of Massachu- 
setts, however, evidently had no authority to commission Kellond and Kirk to 
extend their researches beyond their own jurisdiction. That this was so under- 
stood by the pursuivants themselves, is evinced by their applying to the governors 
of Connecticut and New Haven for powers to enable them to prosecute the object 
of their mission in those colonics. 



[1661.] PURSUIVAJSTTS ARRIVE AT GUILFORD. 239 

and they were obliged to interrupt him, and let him know 
that "it was convenient to be more private in such concern- 
ments as that was." He delayed to furnish them with 
horses in season, so that they could pursue their journey 
that night. The next day was the Sabbath, and they were 
obliged to wait in Guilford until Monday morning, the 13th, 
at daybreak,* 

If the account that they afterwards gave of the matter is 
true, (and they gave it under oath,) an Indian was sent to 
New Haven in the night, and no difficulty was found in 
procuring a horse for one John Meigs, who set out for New 
Haven long before day, and heralded their approach with 
most untimely haste. Governor Leete positively refused to 
issue any warrant or send men to assist in making the 
arrest, until he had consulted the magistrates. In order to 
do this, it was necessary that he should go to New Haven. 
A wearisome Sunday the pursuers must have made of it. It 
is quite likely that the Indian spoken of in their report to 
Governor Endicott was sent off on Saturday evening to give 
the alarm to Mr. Davenport, who on Sunday would have a 
favorable opportunity to inform the people and put them on 
their guard. Indeed, this accords so well with the statement 
of Stiles that I can not entertain much doubt that such was 
the fact.f 

* See Stiles, Trumbull, and Bacon. 

tThe more I read President Stiles' History of the three judges, the more I 
am induced to trust myself to him as an authority. His diligence in searching 
out details and traditionary evidence is almost without a parallel, and I find that 
most of his conclusions stand the severest test. He tells us that " about the time 
the pursuers came to New Haven, and perhaps a little before, and to prepare the 
minds of the people for their reception, the Rev. Mr. Davenport preached publicly 
from Isaiah xvi. 3, 4." Now if the report of Kellond and Kirk is correct, that 
they reached Guilford on the 11th and New Haven on the 13th, and if the 12th 
was Sunday, which, as Dr. Bacon says, is " found to be true by actual calcula- 
tion," what time could have been more suitable than that 12th of May for the 
preaching of such a discourse ? The pursuivants must therefore have spent two 
nights and one day at Guilford, and to make sure that Mr. Davenport had notice 
of their coming, Meigs, the second messenger, was probably sent off before day- 
break on Monday morning. 



240 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

At beat of drum the worshipers assembled as usual to 
listen to the teachings of their patriarch. The alarming in- 
telligence that the pursuers were near, was probably whis- 
pered at the outer door of the meeting-house, in the ears of 
some of the principal men, if indeed it did not interrupt for 
a moment the grave tranquillity of the puritan Sabbath as 
it circulated among the people as they met. However, they 
would soon become composed — hushed, indeed, as statues 
long before the presence of the Supreme God was invoked. 
From what we know of the earnest character of the audi- 
tory, we may safely conclude that the silence of death 
reigned throughout the humble edifice, and that all eyes' 
were fastened upon the face of the speaker — all ears thrilled 
to the tones of his voice, as he gave out his text from the 
XVIth chapter of Isaiah, verses 3 and 4 : " Take counsel, 
execute judgment, make thy shadow as the night in the 
midst of noon-day ; hide the outcasts, bewray not him that 
wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwell with thee ; Moab, be 
thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler." 

I have not found upon the pages of history, a better ex- 
ample of moral courage thwarting the purposes of vindictive 
power, than the one afforded by this brave old clergyman 
upon the remote confines of the British empire calling upon 
the subjects of that empire who were gathered around him, 
to resist for the sake of mercy, the vengeance of their king. 

Kellond and Kirk, as early on Monday morning as they 
found it practicable, rode into New Haven. They were not 
received with much cordiality by the inhabitants. In mo- 
mentary expectation of the arrival of Governor Leete, they 
were obliged to wait about two hours before his excellency 
came. They then again pressed their demand for a warrant, 
as they said they had received information that convinced 
them that the regicides were still in New Haven. The gov- 
ernor said he did not believe they were in New Haven. 
The young gentlemen then begged that he would empower 
them to arrest the judges or order others to do it. Leete 
replied, that " he could not and would not make them magis- 



[1G6].] PURSUIVANTS IN NEW HAVEN. 241 

trates." They then said if he would enable them to do it, 
they would themselves make search in two houses where 
they had reason to suppose that the regicides lay hid. The 
governor then told them that he could take no steps in the 
matter until he had called the freemen together. 

The pursuivants were very much exasperated, and set 
before him in a strong light the dangers that he was bringing 
upon himself and upon the colony of New Haven by his 
delay. They further told him, that they did not doubt, from 
his reluctance to aid in the arrest, he was willing that 
the traitors should escape. This remark seemed to make an 
impression upon him, for he soon after convened the magis- 
trates and remained in consultation with them — so weighty 
was the business — for a period of five or six hours. The 
council at length came to the conclusion that it was neces- 
sary to call a general court. Again the pursuers remonstra- 
ted. They reminded the governor how striking was the 
contrast between his conduct and that of the governors of 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, who, with the alacrity of 
faithful subjects, had hastened to issue their warrants in obe- 
dience to the king's mandate ; they warned him against the 
horrible crime of aiding and abetting traitors and regicides, 
and ended by putting to him the pertinent question, "whether 
he would obey the king or no in this affair." " We honor 
his majesty," replied Leete, " but we have tender con- 
sciences." Enraged at this answer, the young men told 
him that they believed he knew where the outlaws were. 
This remark, implying a charge of high treason, led the 
governor and magistrates into another long consultation, 
that lasted two or three hours. , 

In the evening, Leete came to the head of the stairs of the 
little inn where the applicants lodged, and taking one of 
them by the hand, told him with the greatest simplicity of 
manner, that " he wished he had been a plowman, and had 
never been in office, since he found it so weighty." 

" Will you own his majesty or no ?" asked the pur- 
suivants. 

16 



242 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

" We would first know whether his majesty would own 
us," was the guarded answer. 

Thus baffled by the authorities and overawed by the 
people, Kellond and Kirk hastened out of the colony of New 
Haven without having dared to search a solitary house. 
They repaired to Manhadoes, where Stuyvesant received 
them with great politeness, and promised to aid them in 
arresting the fugitives if they could be found in his jurisdic- 
tion. Soon after, they went back to Boston * 

Let us now return to the exiles. It is quite probable that 
they were at the house of Mr. Davenport until Saturday 
night, (the 11th of May,) when the Indian messenger arrived 
from Guilford, for it appears that they fled from the town 
that night, and spent at least a part of it at a mill situated in 
the woods two miles north-west of New Haven. Here they 
lay concealed until the 13th, when Mr. Jones with Burrill 
and Sperry visited them, and, probably while those protracted 
consultations were going on at New Haven between the 
governor and the magistrates, conducted them to the house 
of Sperry, still another mile farther off from New Haven. 
They here provided them a place that has ever since been 
called " Hatchet Harbor," where they lodged two nights, and 
on the 15th of the monthf went to a cave upon the moun- 
tain called by them Providence Hill, but since known as 
West Rock, as the cave that sheltered the I'egicides still 
bears the name of " Judges' Cave." Upon the very summit 
of this mountain, and towering about twenty feet above it, 
on a base not more than forty feet square, stood an irregular 
cluster of pillars of trap-rock like a clunip of trees. They 
had been upheaved in some strong convulsion of nature, and 
seemed very properly to typify the fiery billows of revolu- 
tion that had drifted those sorrow-stricken men to take 
refuge from the strength of the returning surf by clinging 
to their gray sides. These rocks, at some distance from 

* A copy of the official report of Kellond and Kirk may be found in Stiles' His- 
tory of the Judges, pp. 52, 56. It bears date "Boston, May 29, 1G61." 
+ This is the date as given in Goffe's .Journal ; see Stiles, p. 77. 



[1661.] THE JUDGES FRIGHTENED FROM THE CAVE. 243 

each other upon the ground, slanted inwards towards a cona- 
mon center at the top, thus forming an irregular channber, 
that could, by closing the outer apertures with the boughs of 
trees, be made habitable but not comfortable for two or three 
persons.* In this forbidding spot, with no companions but 
the wild animals, whose voices startled them from their 
sleep at night, and surrounded by such forest trees as could 
find a footing in the barren soil, they lived until the 11th of 
June.f Sperry sometimes carried them food himself, and 
sometimes sent one of his sons, who left it upon the stump 
of a tree that was pointed out to him, and who, with the 
superstitious wonder of childhood, in vain demanded of his 
father why the basins that he had carried there filled with 
provisions were found empty at his next visit, and why he 
was sent upon this mysterious errand. 

" There is somebody at work in the woods who wants the 
food," was the unsatisfactory reply. 

This desolate mountain was, as I have said, the haunt of 
wild beasts. One night, as the regicides lay in bed, they saw 
a panther or catamount thrust its head into the mouth of the 
cave. Its blazing eyeballs and unearthly cry so frightened 
the inmates, that one of them fled down the mountain to 
Sperry 's house, where he gave the alarm. This intruder, 
terrible to men who had proved themselves to possess true 
courage when man meets man upon the battle-field, drove 
them from the cave. J 

It is impossible that I should follow these outlawed men 
in all their painful wanderings to elude the vigilance of their 
pursuers. Tradition still points out many places along the 
coast where they lingered, sometimes for a night and some- 
times for a longer period, as best accorded with their real or 
fancied security. Sometimes they appear to have been 
alarmed for the safety of those who had protected them, and 
rather than bring them into difficulty, they resolved more 

* An engraved view of the "Judges' Caves'' may be found in Barber's Hist. 
Coll.ofConn., p. 151. 

t Goffe's Journal. i Stiles, p. 75. 



244 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

than once to surrender themselves, and would have done so 
but for the solicitations of those in whose behalf they pro- 
posed to make the sacrifice. 

Some time between the 11th of June, when they left the 
cave, and the 20th of the same month, they went to Guil- 
ford with a view of delivering themselves up to Governor 
Leete. The walls of the cellar are still standing, and may 
be expected to last another hundred years, where tradition 
informs us that they lodged, unseen by the governor though 
fed from his table, while the negotiations relative to their 
submission were going on. It appears that they desired to 
yield themselves up in order to save Mr. Davenport, who 
resisted it with his usual fearlessness and magnanimity. 
Endicott, who had dared to cut the cross from the king's 
banner, quailed before the royal mandate. Davenport alone 
remained, 

" Like Teneriffe or Atlas, unremoved." 

While at Guilford, the regicides also lodged at the house of 
Mr. Rossiter. 

From their various retreats in the woods they repaired 
to the house of a Mr. Tompkins in Milford. In this house 
they remained in the most perfect concealment for two 
years. They had a private room devoted to them, and did 
not so much as venture to walk out into the orchard. The 
honorable Robert Treat, Benjamin Fenn, and the clergy- 
man, Mr. Roger Newton, were in the secret, often visited 
them, and afforded them such consolation and support as 
their forlorn situation demanded. The manly, sympathetic 
nature of Robert Treat needed only to know that they were 
friendless and sorrowful. A single grasp of his hand, a 
glance at his gallant face, was enough to assure the regicides 
that their secrets were safely lodged with him. 

We are not to infer from the solitude and the dangers 
that all the while threatened the regicides, that they were 
the victims of moping melancholy. On the other hand, 
though they behaved with a dignity worthy of their former 
position, they beguiled the time not only with pleasant 



[1664.] THE JUDGES REMOVE TO HADLEY. 245 

conversation, but often with tiiat gamesome merriment that 
is so strangely allied to misery. During their stay at Mil- 
ford, there was brought over from England a ballad written 
by some hair-brained cavalier rhymer, placing the regicides 
in such a ludicrous light that a loyalist might be excused for 
laughing or a puritan for biting his lip at the recital of it. 
This ballad, a girl who was an inmate of Mr. Tompkins' 
family, or who was in the habit of visiting the house, had com- 
mitted to memory and had learned to sing it, which she 
happened to do in the chamber above the room occupied by 
the judges. They were so delighted with the song that they 
used to beg their host to have it repeated by the young 
ladies of the family, who little knew what an interested 
auditory had been provided for them.* 

On the arrival of the commissioners in 1664, and when it 
became known that they were charged among other things 
with the arrest of the judges, their friends were again 
alarmed for their safety, and it was thought best that they 
should leave Milford for some new place of concealment. 
Accordingly, on the 13th of October, 1664, they set out for 
Hadley, then a frontier town in Massachusetts, a hundred 
miles from Milford, and so remote from Boston, Hartford 
and New Haven, that it did not seem probable that their 
presence in such a place would be suspected. They traveled 
only by night, and lay still during the day in some shady 
nook in the woods, or by the bank of a brook where the 
murmuring of the water invited them to repose. These 
stopping-places they called Harbors. The locality of one of 
them is still pointed out at the now flourishing village of 
Meriden, that yet retains the name of Pilgrim's Harbor. 
They reached Hadley in safety, and there they were secreted 
in the house of the Rev. John Russell, in a secret chamber, 
probably until they died. They kept a diary of the most 
minute events that transpired, probably more to amuse them- 
selves than for any historical purpose. This journal was in 

* See Stiles, whose facts and dates I have generally followed in tracing the 
history of the judges after their arrival in New England. 



246 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

the handwriting of Goffe. Indeed, Whalley became infirm 
not long after his removal to Hadley, and from what I can 
glean from the tender expressions in regard to him that I 
find in Goffe's letters, I have no doubt that he became de- 
mented some time before his death, that is supposed to have 
happened in the year 1678. 

Noble tells us that the Whalleys are of great antiquity. 
They were a very proud family, and were royalists. Upon 
the breaking out of the civil wars, Edward Whalley, who 
had been brought up to merchandise, in opposition to the 
wishes of his family took up arms in behalf of the people. At 
the battle of Naseby, in 1645, he fought with unparalleled 
bravery. He charged and defeated two divisions of Lang- 
dale's horse, supported as they were by that fiery cavalier, 
Prince Rupert, who commanded the reserve. For his heroic 
bravery on that occasion, he was made by the parliament a 
colonel of horse. He also commanded the horse at the siege 
of Bristol, when Prince Rupert surrendered up the city.* 
He was never popular with the more fanatical of the Inde- 
pendents, who hated him for his aristocratic bearing, and 
envied him for his success. At the head of his accusers 
was that wolfish radical, Hugh Peters, who charged him with 
being a Presbyterian — a compliment that Whalley threatened 
to reciprocate by caning him.f 

When Charles I. fell into Cromwell's hands, he committed 
him to the keeping of Whalley,J who was charged by some 
of the more zealous loyalists with severity towards his royal 
prisoner. But this falsehood the king had the generosity to 
deny in a letter written to Whalley after his escape. 

While Charles was still in custody at Hampton Court, 
Captain Sayers waited on his majesty to give back the en- 
signs of the order of the garter that had belonged to the 
Prince of Orange. Whalley felt it to be his duty to inter- 
pose to prevent a private interview, when the king, in a fit 
of rage, pushed him away with both his hands. But this 

* Noble's " House of Cromwell," ii, 143, 144 ; Camden. 
+ Noble, ii. 144. t Carlyle, i. 234, 235. 



WHALLEY AND GOFFE. 247 

passion was only momentary. Indeed, the gallantry and 
courtly demeanor of Whalley could not fail to win upon the 
affections of the king. 

At the terrible battle of Dunbar, Whalley, with Monk, com- 
manded the foot forces, and had two horses shot under him.* 

In 1656 he was created a lord, and appears to have plumed 
himself not a little upon his accession to a dignity that was 
much ridiculed by the king's faction. Colonel Ashfield, who 
knew that Whalley's principles would not allow him to en- 
gage in a duel, and who was aware of the keenness of his 
sensibilities and the suddenness of his temper, took occasion 
to speak in the hearing of the new dignitary in slighting and 
very pointed terms of Cromwell's House of Lords. Whalley 
was so angry that he threatened to treat him as he had pro- 
posed to deal with Peters, and doubtless would have been as 
good as his word had the insult been repeated. f With the 
exception of a hot temper and those lively bubbles of vanity 
that float upon the surface of almost every sparkling char- 
acter, there was not a more noble nature in the world than 
that of Edward Whalley. His talents as a civilian were 
highly respectable ; as a soldier, he was almost unrivaled in 
that age of military renown. 

He married a sister of Sir George Middlelon, that bitter 
enemy of Charles I. and ardent friend of Charles II. Their 
daughter married General Goffe, and became the mother of 
a numerous family. 

Major General William Goffe was a son of the Rev. Ste- 
phen Goffe, rector of Stanmar, in Sussex. Like Whalley, 
he drew his sword against the king in the civil wars, and 
threw away the scabbard. He very early distinguished 
himself, and was first made a quarter-master, then a colonel 
of foot, and afterwards a general. He commanded Crom- 
well's regiment at the battle of Dunbar, as appears from the 
following extract from one of Cromwell's dispatches: — "For 
my own regiment, under command of Lieut. Col. Goffe, and 
my Major White, did come seasonably in, and, at the push 

* Carlyle, ii. 471. + Noble, ii. 153. 



248 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

of the pike, did repel the stoutest regiment the enemy had 
there."* He was elected a member of parliament ; he aided 
in the accusation of the eleven members ; he sat in judgment 
upon the king, and signed the warrant for his execution. 
He also helped White in the difficult task of purging the par- 
liament of those members who could not be made to subserve 
the purposes of Cromwell, and for this he received the ap- 
pointment of major-general. To crown his honors he Avas 
created a member of Cromwell's House of Lords. He re- 
mained faithful to the interests of the protectorate after the 
death of Oliver, and signed the order for proclaiming Richard 
as his successor. Monk knew his uncompromising nature, 
and would not admit him into his secrets or treat with him 
as the emissary of the army. His great popularity, his bold- 
ness, his courage, his comprehensive intellect, the colossal 
proportions of his character ; above all, his disinterestedness, 
made him a da.ngerous neighbor to royalty, and especially to 
the house of Stuart. f 

Some of the letters written by Mrs. Gofte to her husband 
are very beautiful, and evince a delicacy of sentiment and a 
depth of affection that reflect honor upon the character of 
both. She wrote under an assumed name, and Goffe ad- 
dressed her as " Mother Goldsmith." In one of these letters 
she writes : — " My dear, I know you are confident of my 
affection, yet give me leave to tell thee, thou art as dear to 
me as a husband can be to a wife, and if I knew any thing 
that I could do to make thee happy, I should do it, if the 
Lord would permit, though to the loss of my life." 

I do not know, in all the range of female correspondence, a 
more wife-like and transparent sentiment, nor one more 
charmingly expressed. Crowns compress the brows of those 
who wear them into wrinkles, and the fruit of ambition but 
too often blisters the tongue of him who eats it, but the love 
of such a woman is immortal and holy as the amaranth 
that blooms in paradise. Now listen to the wife and mother 
both in one. 

* Carlyle, i. 470. t Stiles, 15. 



MRS. GOFFE. 249 

" Frederick, with such of the dear babes as can speak, pre- 
sent their humble duty to thee, talk much of thee, and long 
to see thee."* 

When we consider that these letters were written with 
the full consciousness that they whom God had joined to- 
gether would never again look upon each other's faces, they 
assume a hallowed character, as if they were the fond, un- 
availing words of a survivor, muttered half in hope and half 
in resignation over the ashes of the dead. 

" Let us comfort ourselves with this," says this noble Eng- 
lish matron, " though we shall never meet in this world again, 
yet I hope, through grace, we shall meet in heaven. "f 

This lady and Mrs. Godolphin, of a lineage scarcely better, 
— for the Middletons were a noble family, and Mrs. GofFe's 
grandfather, Sir Henry Cromwell,J entertained kings in al- 
most royal state at Hinchinbrook, — are among the few 
women whose names have come down to us from the days 
of the second Charles, whom we regard with honor and rev- 
erence as giving promise then of that change in the social con- 
dition of their sex that is the boast of our age ; a change that 
has added a new link, and one of the brightest, in the chain 
of evidence that establishes the efficacy and vitality of the 
Christian faith. 

I shall give a brief sketch of the other regicide who availed 
himself of our hospitality, and then I shall leave this interest- 
ing topic to be handled with more minuteness by some writer 
who has greater ability to treat of it, and more leisure for the 
task. 

* Noble, i. p. 624. t Noble, i. 425. 

i The story that was circulated during the civil wars, and long afterwards, that 
the Cromwells were of low descent, was one of the most shameless falsehoods that 
ever gained credit with the world. Tlie ignorance or bigotry of that man who 
could believe such a thing in this age, ought to make him a conspicuous object. 
In verification of this remark, the reader is referred to the Rev. Mark Noble's 
" House of Cromwell," a work written by a gentleman allied in feeling and in 
faith to the Church of England, whose minister he was, and who was not likely to 
lavish praise upon that family where it was not due. Why Carlyle has spoken in 
such unkind terms of this author I can not say. Noble has at least the merit of 
writing English. 



250 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT, 

Colonel John Dixwell, of the priory of Folkstone, in the 
county of Kent, belonged to the landed gentry of England, 
and was possessed of a manor and several other estates of 
value. He was the uncle and guardian of Sir Basil Dix- 
well. He was not one of those discontented spirits who 
desire political changes for the chances of promotion, but 
could make his election whether he would live upon his 
estates and pass his time in the elegant pursuit of letters, that 
offered so many attractions to a gentleman of his tastes, or 
whether he would engage in more stirring scenes. He pre- 
ferred action to repose, and took up arms in the popular 
cause. He soon distinguished himself, and was an officer in 
the army before and during the protectorate. He bore the 
rank of Colonel. He was a member of parliament for Kent, 
sheriff of that county, and in 1649 was one of the king's judges. 

At the Restoration he is supposed to have left England, but 
whither he fled, and what ministering angels supplied him 
with food, are secrets that have long since passed into 
oblivion. As appears by an entry made in the lost journal 
of Goffe, he visited his brother regicides, during their resi- 
dence at Hadley, in February, 1665. Hutchinson informs 
us that he lived at Hadley for several years. This may be 
correct, but his granddaughter, Mrs. Caruthers, always be- 
lieved that he only remained there six weeks. Thence he 
again wandered we know not whither, and secreted himself 
we know not where, until, under the assumed name of James 
Davids, he took up his abode at New Haven. What year 
he first came to New Haven is not known ; but it must have 
been before 1672, for he assisted in the settlement of Mr. 
Ling's estate in 1673, and he had boarded in Ling's fam- 
ily for some time previous to the decease of his host. It 
was generally understood by the inhabitants that Davids 
was not the name of the retiring and quiet stranger who 
had thus come among them, but they seem to have pre- 
ferred to remain in ignorance upon a subject that might 
have given trouble both to him and to themselves. He was 
known to Governor Jones, Mr. Street, Mr. Bishop, and a 



COLONEL DIXWELL. 251 

few Other gentlemen who could safely be trusted with the 
secret ; but to none so intimately as to the Rev. James Pier- 
pont, who became the settled minister at New Haven in 
1685. Between these two congenial spirits there existed 
the most faithful friendship, until it was terminated by the 
death of Dixwell. Their lots joined, and they were in the 
habit of meeting at the fence and holding long and secret 
interviews together, until we are told that there was a worn 
footpath leading from their respective houses to the place of 
conference. The attention of Mrs. Pierpont was arrested by 
this growing and secret intimacy, and she could not forbear 
asking her husband what he saw in that old man, that should 
make him so attractive. " He is a very knowing and learned 
man," Mr. Pierpont would reply. 

While Sir Edmund Andross was in America, he visited 
Connecticut several times upon an errand not very welcome 
to the people ; and probably in the course of the year 1686 
he spent a Sunday at New Haven and attended public wor- 
ship. Sir Edmund was a soldier, and had an extensive 
knowledge of the world. His practiced eye rested upon 
the erect figure and high features of the regicide, with an 
earnest gaze. His curiosity was awakened. There was in 
the venerable man before him, a presence and bearing that 
spoke of other scenes than those that then surrounded him. 
Not only did he appear to possess sterling traits of character, 
but it was evident that he had been a soldier. When the 
services were over. Sir Edmund made inquiry after this 
mysterious man. "Who is he, and what is his occupation?" 
he asked of one of the worshipers. 

" He is a merchant who resides in town." 

Sir Edmund Andross shook his head — "/ knoio that he is 
not a merchant," replied he, peremptorily. 

Mr. Davids was not present at the afternoon service ! 

It would give me pleasure to trace more in detail the 
habits of Colonel Dixwell, and to speak more fully of his 
intercourse with his reverend friend, who was worthy to be 
the confidant of such an exile, and who was present to 



252 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

support him with his countenance and strength in his last 
hour. 

He died in March, 1689, in the 82d year of his age. His 
remains rest in New Haven, and are in the keeping of those 
who honor his memory. Where are the graves of Whalley 
and Goffe ? Do they, too, slumber in the same soil ? Or 
are the bones of Whalley still at Hadley, and did Goffe wan- 
der away and die in a southern clime ? 

I believe that they all sleep together, but I will leave the 
antiquarian to settle this delicate question, if indeed he can 
add any thing to what Stiles* has written. I must bid adieu 
to the Regicides. 

* I will here put upon record a little anecdote told me by a venerable graduate 
of Tale College, that may serve to illustrate at once the manners of President 
Stiles, and the reverence with which he was regarded by the students. " I knew 
him well," said my informant, " and honored him, for 1 hardly dared to love him. 
He was small in stature, but when he came up the chapel aisle, and bowed to the 
right and left as we all stood up to receive him, he filled up the space so that you 
could not put an eighteen-pence between him and the pews !" 



CHAPTER XIL 



KING PHILIP'S WAR. 



When Colonel Nichols found himself master of the Dutch 
settlement, he entered upon the duties of his government 
and took up his abode in New York. The other commis- 
sioners proceeded to Boston and prosecuted their labors with 
vigor. They first made known their instructions to the gen- 
eral court, and gave them a statement of what would be 
required of them, that could not fail to surprise them, as it 
contained many things inconsistent with the provisions of the 
charter of that colony. They also insisted on a greater de- 
gree of toleration in ecclesiastical matters than the court was 
willing to concede.* The commissioners also set at defiance 
all the known rules of making contracts with the Indians, 
and went so far as to declare that the deed obtained by the 
people of Rhode Island was void for some trifling informality. 
They further decided that Atherton's deed of the large tract 
that he, had bought in the Narragansett country, east of 
Pawcatuck river, was invalid, as there was no specified sum 
named in it as a consideration. These peremptory gentle- 
men also held courts in Warwick and Southerton, and 
attempted to make a new province independent of the col- 
onies. This anomalous dependency upon the crown, insti- 
tuted without a shadow of authority, was named by them the 
"King's Province." It embraced the entire Narragansett 
country, and extended westward to the Pawcatuck river, 
and northward to the southern line of Massachusetts. f 

* Among the propositions made by the commissioners to the Plymouth jurisdic- 
tion was this : — " That all men and women of orthodox opinions, co7npetent 
estates, knowledge, civil lives and not scandalous, may be admitted to the sacra- 
ment of the Lord's Supper, and their children to baptism." Hutchinson, i. 214. 
t Trumbull, i. 315. 



254 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

When they had made an end of this extraordinary mission 
to the Narragansett country, they returned to Boston, and in 
defiance of the Massachusetts charter, proceeded to exercise 
a jurisdiction there over all matters that did not accord with 
their views. The general court remonstrated against such 
arbitrary conduct, and thereby so offended the commissioners 
that they represented the colony to the king in a very un- 
favorable light.* 

Connecticut, on the other hand, with her boundary lines, 
as she thought, forever settled, and her old troubles with New 
Haven and the Dutch brought to a close, and enjoying a 
large measure of the king's favor, went forward with smiling 
prospects to perfect her civil organization, and to plant new 
germs of population and strength in the unoccupied portions 
of her domain. 

At the general assembly held in May 1666, it was enacted 
that the towns upon the river, from the north bounds of Wind- 
sor, with Farmington, to Thirty Mile Island, should be a 
county to be called the county of Hartford ; that the country 
from Pawcatuck river with Norwich, to the west bounds of 
Hammonassett, should constitute another county, to be called 
New London ; and that the large territory from the eastern 
bounds of Stratford to the western boundary of the colony, 
should be known as the county of Fairfield.f 

For about three years a settlement had been made on the 
eastern bank of the Connecticut opposite Saybrook, before it 
was thought large enough for incorporation. But in the 
spring of 1667, when the general assembly met, the settle- 
ment had grown so rapidly that it was deemed best to incor- 
porate it. It received the name of Lyme, J and has been the 
seat of the Griswolds and many other families of distinction 
from that day to this. 

As early as May 1662, a purchase hacf been made of the 
Indians of a large tract of land called Thirty Mile Island — a 
valuable township lying on either bank of the Connecticut 

* See Hutchinson, i. 228, 229. t Colonial Records, ii. 34, 35. 
i Colonial Records, ii. 60. 



HADDAM, SIMSBURY, WALLINGFORD. 255 

river, about thirty miles from its mouth. The original pro- 
prietors were twenty-eight in number, and they began their 
settlement on the west side of the river. The plantation had 
grown rapidly. At the October session of the general 
assembly, 1668, it was incorporated under the name of 
Haddam.* It included the present town of East Haddam, 
then known by its Indian name of Machemoodus.f The 
first settlers, for the most part, were from Hartford, Weth- 
ersfield and Windsor. The lands that border the river are 
not alluvial, like those of Hartford and Glastenbury, but they 
are very productive, the prevailing soil being a dry, gravelly 
loam. There are large tracts of forest trees still standing in 
this town, and it presents some of the most picturesque views 
of the Connecticut that are to be found in its whole course. 
At the time of the first settlement of the town, it afforded 
excellent hunting and fishing ground. 

In April 1644, liberty had been granted by the general 
court of Connecticut to Governor Hopkins and Governor 
Haynes to sell the district lying upon the Tunxis river called 
Massacoe, to such of the inhabitants of Windsor as they 
should select. In 1647, a new method was adopted towards 
instituting a plantation there, as the former one had not 
accomplished the object. The court therefore resolved that 
this same tract should be purchased by the " country," and a 
committee should sell it at their discretion to the planters of 
Windsor. This plan resulted favorably, and although the 
plantation was at first treated as a part of the old town of 
Windsor, it was so thriving and grew up to be so vigorous 
and hardy, that it was in May 1670, incorporated, and took 
the name of Simsbury.J 

As the same session, the place called " New Haven vil- 
lage" was made a town and received and still retains the 
name of Wallingford.§ The lands embraced in it had been 
bought by Eaton and Davenport of the Indians in 1638. 
The settlement was projected in 1669. It was at first a part 

* Colonial Records, ii. 97. t Trumbull, i. 317. t Colonial Records, ii. 127. 
§ lb. ii. 127. 



25o HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

of New Haven, as Simsbury was of Windsor, The Rev. 
Samuel Street was the first minister there ; and we are told 
that Mr. Davenport was present and assisted ii. laying the 
foundation of the chureh, and, standing at the foot of the 
eminence where the village looks off so pleasantly upon the 
then fair range of woods and streams, preached a character- 
istic discourse from the words of Isaiah : — " My beloved hath 
a vineyard in a very fruitful hill."* 
^ For about twenty years, the citizens of New Haven had 
been trying to establish a plantation at Paugasset, on the 
Naugatuck river. About the year 1653, Governor Good- 
year, in company with several other gentlemen of New 
Haven, bought a large tract of land there of the Indians. A 
few feeble beginnings were made the next year towards a 
settlement upon this purchase ; and at the October session 
of the general court of New Haven colony, in 1655, the 
inhabitants of the place presented their application to be 
made a town. The court granted their petition, gave them 
the privilege of purchasing a still larger tract, and relieved 
them from the burden of taxation. Richard Baldwin, at the 
same session of the court, was appointed moderator to call 
meetings and conduct the affairs of the town. But this 
piece of legislation was very displeasing to Mr. Prudden and 
the other citizens of Milford, for Paugasset had been a part 
of that town since it was first settled, and they looked upon 
the act of incorporation as a dismemberment of their own 
territory, and an encroachment upon their municipal juris- 
diction. They therefore remonstrated against the doings of 
the court at its next session, and induced that body to re- 
consider its vote, at least so far as to order that Paugasset 
should remain a part of Milford, unless the respective parties 
should mutually consent to have the act of incorporation go 
into effect. t 

In 1657 and 1659, a further purchase was made of the 
chief sagamores We-ta-na-mow and Ras-ke-nu-te, and the 
purchase was afterwards confirmed by the chief sachem, 
* Lambert, 83 ; Barber's Hist. Coll. 253. f Trumbull, i. 321. 



THE NAUGATUCK VALLEY. 257 

Okenuck. Some of the principal planters were Edmund 
Wooster, Edward Riggs, Richard Baldwin, Samuel Hopkins, 
Thomas Langdon and Francis French.* 
^Thus stood affairs with Paugusset, when in 1671 the 
inhabitants preferreu a petition to the general assembly of 
Connecticut, the burden of which was their old prayer for 
town privileges. This oracle also responded somewhat 
equivocally, by determining that their southern bounds 
should be the north line of Milford, and that they might 
stretch their limits twelve miles northward, to a place called 
" the notch," and that as soon as they could swell their num- 
bers to thirty, they should be incorporated. f 

For four years more, the people of this little settlement 
held their peace, and then, in May of the year 1675, they 
renewed their application. They represented that they then 
had twelve families, and should soon have eleven more ; that 
they had provided a minister, built a house for him, and 
pnade all the arrangements for permanent religious worship. 
This last appeal wa& irresistible. The general assembly 
forthwith gave them an independent existence, and called 
them Derby. J When we think of the feeble infancy of this 
eldest of inland towns in the valley of the Naugatuck, and 
see the thousands that now inhabit them, and listen to the 
hum of their spindles, the rattle of their looms, with all the 
myriad voices that industry and enterprise blend in a per- 
petual song of development and progress along the whole 
course of that swift mountain stream, the change seems 
indeed astonishing, and in any other country and with any 
other population in the world, would have been impossible. 

A dispute of an ecclesiastical character, that will find a 
place in a subsequent chapter of this work, broke out in the 
church at Stratford, that ultimately led to the settlement of 
another plantation still further inland. This was the then cele- 
brated controversy between the Rev. Mr. Chauncey and the 
Rev. Mr. "Walker and their respective parties. It began in 
1664, and was agitated before the general assembly for about 

* Trumbull, i. 322. t Colonial Records, ii. 148. * lb. ii. 248, 249. 
17 



258 HISTOEY OF CONNECTICUT. 

eight years. Governor Winthrop, following the good advice 
of Mr. Davenport to the people of Wethersfield, with a view 
of putting an end to this unhappy affair, proposed to Mr. 
Walker that he and his people should remove out of the 
limits of Stratford and found a new plantation by themselves, 
in some convenient place that they might choose. If this 
plan should be adopted, he himself offered to lend his influ- 
ence to procure a grant of land and privileges of incorpora- 
tion for a town. 

In pursuance of this promise, we find that on the 9th of 
May 1672, there was granted to "Mr. Samuel Sherman, 
Lieut. William Curtis, Ensign Joseph Judson, and John 
Minor, themselves and associates, liberty to erect a plan- 
tation at Pomperaug.* There were a few reasonable re- 
strictions in this grant, that I need not name in this connec- 
tion. It was too late in the season for the planters who pro- 
posed to emigrate, to entertain the thought of breaking up 
the soil of the contemplated purchase, and planting it with 
corn to any great extent, yet they at once set about the task 
of making ready to go the next spring ; and some of the 
most active men set out forthwith for the place, and planted 
a few acres of Indian corn, which they harvested in the fall, 
and placed in cribs made of logs. But they derived little 
benefit from it, for the Indians and the wild beasts ate it up 
during the winter.f 

Early the next spring, fifteen planters of Mr. Walker's 
party set out with their families for the valley of the Pom- 
peraug. They were told to follow the Pootatuck or Great 
River — now known as the Housatonick — " till they came to 
a large river flowing into it from the north. They were to 
follow up this stream about eight miles, when they would 
reach a large open plain." Upon this plain they were to 
stop and commence the foundations of their future town, 
away from the other settlements, alone in the wilderness. 

With bold hearts they began their journey, but when they 
came to the mouth of the Pomperaug, the volume of water 

* Colonial Records, ii, 177. + Cothren's Hist, of Woodbury, 35. 



[1673.] SETTLEMENT OF WOODBURY. 259 

that it added to the deep current of the Housatonick — that 
main artery of Western Massachusetts and Connecticut — 
looked so scanty to them, that they passed it by, though not 
without some misgivings, and continued on until they came 
to the mouth of the Shepaug. The size of this stream did 
not satisfy them much better, but they ventured to trust 
themselves to it, and followed it up till they became bewil- 
dered in the gorges and mountains of the present town of 
Roxbury. They now saw their mistake and hastened to 
repair it. They resolved not to retrace their steps, but to 
take an easterly course, and make the best of their way to 
the stream that they had passed. They journeyed over the 
densely wooded hills until they came to a fair swelling ridge 
of rich forest land, now called Good Hill, that looked down 
upon a delightful valley threaded by a bright river, and al- 
ready half subdued into good plow and meadow land by the 
Indians, who for generations had been preparing the way 
for the race before whose more systematic husbandry they 
were to vanish like the dew. 

At sight of such a goodly land, whose acres they were so soon 
to part out among themselves and their fellow adventurers, 
the little company fell upon their knees and blessed God that 
their lines had fallen to them in such pleasant places. They 
encamped on the hill that night, and the next day they ex- 
plored the valley with earnest diligence to find out the best 
locality where they might build their log cabins, and gather 
about them the first rude comforts of pioneer life. At even- 
ing they encamped under a white oak tree, far down the 
river, in the present town of Southbury. The locality still 
retains the name of White Oak, in commemoration of the 
event ; and tradition, true to the fathers of Woodbury, still 
points out the spot where they slept, though the oak that 
they rested under has long since mouldered like them into the 
soft, warm earth of the valley. 

All the large territory of this venerable town — the oldest 
in Litchfield county — was amicably purchased of the In- 
dians. It was a very extensive region, fifteen miles in length 



260 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

from north to south, and ten miles in width. It had a good 
variety of hill and valley lands and was watered by many 
lively streams, that for the most part helped to make up the 
two large branches of the Pootatuck river that I have 
before alluded to. 

The settlers, soon after their arrival, formed a constitu- 
tion,* and signed it by a committee in due form. Their 
friends soon followed them, and in 1674, the plantation was 
incorporated under the name of Woodbury.f The town- 
ship then embraced all the territory now included in the 
towns of Washington, Southbury, Bethlem, Roxbury, and a 
part of Oxford and Middlebury. These different sections 
were' first set off and incorporated as ecclesiastical societies; 
but as they gradually increased in population, they were 
ultimately, one after another, invested with " town priv- 
ileges." 

I have mentioned the settlement of these several towns 
in this chapter, not only to preserve the chronological order 
of events, but because they were obliged to devote their 
infancy to the prevention of the sanguinary struggle that I 
now proceed to narrate. 

It had been thought that for several years Philip, chief 
sachem of the Wampanoags, had used all his address to 
incite a general insurrection of the Indians for the purpose 
of exterminating the English. That jealousies were exciting 
in his breast against his white neighbors, of a deeply-rooted 
growth, is certainly true ; it is also true that he kept under 
arms and paid frequent visits to the tribes that owed allegi- 
ance to him. This greatly alarmed the English colonies. 
A little while before the war broke out, the governor of Mas- 
sachusetts sent an ambassador to him to demand of him 

* For a copy of this constitution, and for a more minute account of the settle- 
ment of this fine old town, I must refer the reader to Cothren's " History of 
Ancient Woodbury,'' — a work that will remain a monument of the learning and 
imtiring perseverence of the author, as long as there shall continue to exist upon 
this continent a single antiquarian library that tells a true tale of the sufferings 
and privations of the earlier if not better days of Connecticut. 

t Col. Rec, ii. 227. 



THE INDIANS EEJECT CHRISTIANITY. 261 

why he would make war with the English, and requested 
him to enter into a treaty with them. "Your governor," 
said Philip to the messenger, " is but a subject of Kinof 
Charles of England. I shall not treat with a subject. I 
shall treat of peace only with the king, my brother. When 
he comes, I am ready." If he entertained any design of 
making an attack upon the colonies, he evidently wished to 
conceal it until he had ripened his plans. The causes of 
this fierce war were many, and of slow but certain operation. 
The immediate occasion of it was as sudden as the eruption 
of a volcano. 

Efforts had long been made by the authorities of Massa- 
chusetts, to subdue the savageness of the Indians by convert- 
ing them to Christianity. No one can read the details of 
the life of Eliot, the Indian apostle on the main-land, or the 
still more touching story of the apostles of the isles, young 
Mayhew, whose missionary zeal was quenched in the billows 
of the Atlantic, and his aged father, who, by inverting the 
order of nature, took the place of his lost child, and taught 
the love and doctrines of Jesus to the tribes that would lend 
an ear to him, not without effect, until he was ninety-two 
years old ; and not feel a deep reverence for the religion that 
can lead its teachers voluntarily to take upon themselves 
such sacrifices. Nor will any one deny, who has dispassion- 
ately conned over those labors of love, that they had much 
to do in keeping the Indians who were the recipients of them, 
in proper subjection. But with the exception of the few 
villages in the vicinity of Boston, and the Indians inhabiting 
Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, the influence 
of the Christian teacher could hardly be said to exert any 
control over the aboriginal mind.* Even those Indians were 
kept in check by the indefinable charm of the missionary's 
life and character, rather than by any effect wrought in their 
own hearts by the doctrines that he attempted to inculcate. 

Beyond this narrow limit, the most benighted idolatry 
reigned throughout all the tribes of New England. The 

* Bancroft, ii. 97 ; Mayhew's Indian Convert, &o. 



262 niSTOEY OF Connecticut. 

Narragansetts were inflexible in their adiierence to their old 
religion, and Philip with scorn rejected the gospel faith, as 
cowardly and unworthy of an Indian chief whose hereditary 
glory could only flourish amid the desolation of war. Be- 
sides, his father, Massasoit, for whom he appears to have 
cherished a deep filial regai'd — Massasoit, who had been the 
first to welcome the houseless exiles of Plymouth to the new 
w^orld, and who had entertained Winslow and his retinue 
with such munificent hospitality in his royal wigwam at Po- 
hansket — had strictly enjoined upon his sons never to allow 
the pride of the warriors of his tribe to be tamed by what he 
believed to be the enervating spirit of Christianity.* 

What a change had taken place in the condition of the 
Wampanoags since the first arrival of the English ! Then, 
all the wide expanse, extending for miles along the coast, 
with its bays, creeks, coves, and inlets abounding in fish, 
as well as the undulating wilderness that stretched away 
to the very fountains of the rivers, those avenues that led 
from one hunting-glade or cornfield to another, were his 
realm and inheritance. By gradual encroachments during 
his life time and the brief reign of Wamsutta, his elder son, 
cove, cornfield, forest and stream, had passed into the hands 
of the English, until, finally, upon the accession of Philip, two 
small tracts of land made up the only territory that the tribe 
could safely call its own, and presume to retain in its exclu- 
sive possession without fear of molestation. Other fields, 
once their own, they could still wander over, but wherever 
they went in the summer, they saw the black mould where 
once their eyes rested upon the green turf; the unsightly 
stump and tree-top, in place of the mighty oak and shapely 
pine ; and the hated village, with its stone chimneys and 
curling wreaths of smoke, like a moving panorama ever 
advancing to meet them. 

Can it be thought strange that all those changes that had 
come over the familiar features of nature, should have been 
so many tokens of jealousy to her sons? Once her luxuriant 

* Bancroft, ii. 99. 



[1675.] 



ORIGIN OF THE WAR. 263 



beauty soothed their rugged natures to short intervals of 
repose. Now that she smiled on others with an altered 
mein, and averted her eyes from them, the very sight of her 
seemed only to inflame them with envy and madness. 

When once the Indians began to hate their white neigh- 
bors, every event seemed to hasten the catastrophe. They 
were cited to appear before the authorities at Boston and 
Plymouth ; they were subjected to the prejudices of an Eng- 
lish jury, and scorned to appear and defend themselves 
before courts that must have been more than human if they 
had in all cases done them exact justice. But I am aware 
that the causes of this war have passed under the review of 
the best writers of New England, and I shall prudently retire 
from a field where there is little left to be gleaned. 

Philip had already been ordered to give up his English 
weapons, and had been from time to time compelled to sub- 
mit to a series of interferences and examinations that could 
not fail to arouse the indignation of an Indian sachem. He 
was also obliged to pay tribute to those whom he regarded 
as his inferiors.* Nor was it a mere nominal tribute that 
might serve as an acknowledgment of fealty to a sovereign 
power, but a heavy burden that enfeebled him and helped to 
enrich those who exacted it. 

In a moment of passion, whether instigated by their chief 
or not I can not say, a few of his tribe waylaid the informer 
who had betrayed their interests, and killed him. One act 
of violence led to another, and the English, perhaps in no 
better spirit than the perpetrators of the first deed of blood, 
seized them, empaneled a jury, made up partly of Indians 
who were friendly to the English, and were doubtless known 
to be so, or their services would not have been put in requi- 
sition ; and, after a hasty trial that hardly served the de- 
mands of decency, found them guilty and hung them.f 

This was early in June 1675, and on the 24th of that 
month, this act, so rash and unnecessary that few will now 

* Bancroft, ii. 100. 

+ Drake's Book of the Indians, b. iii, 23 ; Trumbull, i. 327. 



264 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

attempt to justify it, resulted in the barbarous murder of at 
least eight of the English at Swansey.* 

It would seem that this bloody recrimination was not the 
work of Philip, for he expressed the deepest regret when he 
heard the sad tidings that he must have felt to be the mutter- 
ings of the distant thunder that heralded the coming of the 
destructive storm, for which, if he had anticipated it as a 
future event, he was not then prepared. f Well might he 
deplore the prospects that this untimely quarrel held out to 
him. Many of the New England tribes were fast friends of 
the English, as well in Connecticut as in Massachusetts. 
Some of them were bound to them by self-interest, others by 
fear. Even the Narragansetts, that large nation so closely 
allied to his own people by blood, although Canonchet, their 
chief, with his warriors, had not forgotten the death of his 
father, Miantinomoh, were kept in awe by the success and 
growing power of the friends of Uncas. He could not avoid 
looking at the relative resources of those who were to mix in 
the strife. He must have seen the painful contrast between 
himself and his few hundred warriors, together with such 
allies as could be induced for the sake of vengeance to 
espouse a desperate cause, spending the summer in the 
woods and snatching the scanty means of subsistence at 
irregular intervals ; passing the winter in lonely swamps, 
with magazines uncertain as the agriculture of the squaws 
was slender and unproductive ; in forts that might easily be 
sought out by his enemies, and where surprise and defeat 
must be annihilation ; I say, he must easily have seen the 
contrast between such an army, fighting for the most part 
with clubs and bows and arrows, and the formidable array 
that could be sent out to meet it by the united colonies of 
New England, who, he knew were pledged to support each 
other, who lived in permanent habitations, had abundance 
of food, were provided with the most deadly weapons, had 
warm clothing to screen them from the cold, and who, in all 

* Drake, b. iii. 24. 

t Calleuder's Hist. Dis. at Newport, R. I., 1738. 



[1675.] PHILIP PEEPARING FOR WAR. 265 

battles that they had waged with the native tribes, had been 
conquerors. 

On the other hand, the Enghsh were not without appre- 
hensions. They had always overrated the strength of the 
Indians, and had been kept in constant fear of some sudden 
surprise. In the earliest stages of their settlements, they had 
looked for total destruction at the hands of these half-naked 
savages, of whom they had a superstitious horror, such as 
they had of the devil, who, as they believed, loved best to 
dwell in deserts and solitary places, and often took the sem- 
blance of a painted savage. I do not think the emigrants 
were more superstitious than other Europeans of that age 
would have been in their situation. But there is a restless 
uncertainty that follows men into new and strange con- 
ditions, and often surrenders them to the dominion of ill- 
founded fears and false estimates of things. Hence it was 
that the Indian bow was seen in the sky, that the moon, 
when laboring under an eclipse, had still light enough left to 
give forth the ghostly semblance of a scalp from her dark- 
ened face.* Indeed, they had much cause for alarm. The 
Indians were not destitute of fire-arnis, and they could 
handle them with the most fatal accuracy. 

After it was made apparent to Philip that he could not 
shun the conflict, he addressed himself to it with all the 
earnestness and vigor of a mind naturally gifted, and now 
quickened into terrible activity by the force of circum- 
stances. He sent his runners and ambassadors to every tribe 
that he had reason to think hostile to the English, or whose 
chiefs could be wrought upon by the eloquence of his orators, 
to unite with him. His eager allies daily poured in, ranged 
under jtheir respective captains, and ready for battle ; for the 
warriors, especially the younger ones, were tired of the long 
peace that had enervated their frames and relaxed their 
bow-strings. As they increased in numbers, they grew more 
and more intoxicated with the prospect of success. They 
flew from one settlement to another, silent as the pestilence, 
* Bancroft, ii. 101. 



266 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

swift as the lightning. Village after village was burned to 
ashes. On the 24th of June, Swansey was destroyed, and 
in quick succession, Taunton, Middleborough and Dartmouth 
lit up the fair expanse of Narragansett Bay. The English 
fled for their lives before their destroyers. Messengers were 
sent off by them, to give the alarm at Boston and Plymouth. 
As soon as the tidings reached the former place, the drum 
was beaten, and in three hours that brave old privateer, 
Captain Samuel Mosely, had gathered an army of one 
hundred and ten picked men, who were soon ready to 
march. The captain had about a dozen of his privateers 
under his command, and there were added to the effective 
forces of the expedition some blood-hounds, that were em- 
ployed to track out the enemy in their concealment.* 

A few days after that, the people of Swansey and Reho- 
both sent to Boston for further aid. Accordingly, Captain 
Thomas Savage was appointed commander-in-chief of the 
expedition, who, with sixty horse and the same number of 
foot soldiers, marched forthwith for the camp of Philip at 
Mount Hope. On arriving there, the English made an 
attack upon him so suddenly, while he was dining, that he 
was obliged to run for his life. Mosely pursued him about 
a mile, and killed a few of his warriors. In this hasty flio-ht, 
Philip lost his cap. It fell into the hands of Cornelius, a 
Dutchman, half soldier and half servant of Mosely, who kept 
it as a trophy. This was on the 29th of June. On the 1st 
of July, two or three more Indians were killed, and their 
scalps sent to Boston. f For the honor of those brave men, 
I wish it had never been found necessary to record an inci- 
dent that seems to put the contending parties upon such an 
equal footing. 

On the 8th of the same month, Benjamin Church and 
Captain Fuller, with a small company of kindred spirits, 
marched down to Pocasset Neck. Church had tried to dis- 
suade the English commander from building a fort at Mount 
Hope Neck, as an utter waste of time. With characteristic 
* See Dralie's Book of the Indians, b. iii. 24. t Drake, b. iii. 26. 



[1675.] HUTCHINSON AND BEERS KILLED. 267 

shrewdness he asked the question, that was then thought to 
be so impertinent in a volunteer who had not at that time 
proved his superior prowess and sagacity as he did soon 
after — " Why should we build a fort for nothing, to cover 
the people from nobody ?"* It was a very significant in- 
quiry, as it turned out that like a flock of pigeons, every 
Indian had left the place. He advised to pursue the Indians 
upon the Pocasset side. Had this advice been followed, the 
towns lying between Pocasset and Plymouth would have 
been saved from conflagration. It would be out of place, 
were I to record here the hot conflict that took place at 
Pocasset, even had it not been delineated with such minute- 
ness by Church, whose pen was adequate to record whatever 
deeds of daring his sword could perform, and who, retreating 
backward to the boat that had saved his men from destruc- 
tion, was the last man to take refuge in this ark of safety. 
At this battle, Philip was present and fought with great 
bravery. It was on this occasion that it was made known 
how well provided the Indians were with fire-arms, as was 
learned, says the lively chronicler, by their " bright guns 
glittering in the sun." 

On the 14th of July, five people were killed at Mendon. 
They were probably shot dead while at their work in the 
field, and were as ignorant as their surviving friends of the 
authors of their death. 

On the 2d of August, Captain Hutchinson was waylaid 
and killed, with several of his men, while going to treat with 
the Nipmucks. Captain Wheeler also had his horse shot 
under him, and was shot through the body, but escaped 
by the aid of his son, who, himself badly wounded, assisted 
him to mount another horse and fly.f 

On the 3d of September, Captain Richard Beers was sud- 
denly surprized while on his march with a company of 
thirty-six men to reinforce the garrison at Northfield ; he 
was attacked by a large body of Indians, and after one of 
the most desperate struggles recorded in our annals, was 

* Hist, of Philip's War, p. 6. t Captain Wheeler's NaiTative, p. 1, 5. 



268 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

killed with about twenty of his men.* The hill to which he 
fled and where he sold his life at so dear a rate, was called, 
in honor of the event, " Beers' Mountain. "f The Indians, 
with a view of striking terror into the breasts of their ene- 
mies, committed shocking outrages upon the bodies of the 
slain. They cut off their heads and set them upon poles 
high in the air, and one " was found with a chain hooked into 
his under jaw and hung upon the bough of a tree." J 

The little garrison that Beers had been sent to relieve, 
suffered every extremity, and was saved only by the timely 
coming of Major Robert Treat, who arrived there from Con- 
necticut two days after the battle, with one hundred soldiers, 
and conducted it to Hadley in safety. 

By this it will be seen that Connecticut, whose soil was 
not invaded during the war, had nobly come up to the rescue 
of her sister colonies, and was found, as we shall see in the 
sequel, able to do them a service that they have been grate- 
ful enough to remember. Indeed, the people of Connecticut, 
though they looked for the approach of the enemy, and took 
the precaution to send troops to Stonington upon the break- 
ing out of the war, to protect that exposed part of their fron- 
tier, bordering on the Narragansett and Nihantick country, 
yet almost every step that they took was in defence of the 
other colonies, in obedience to the articles of confederation. 

The Narragansetts did not very cordially second the efforts 
of Philip, and yet they aided him indirectly by harboring his 
old men and women, and it is not unlikely that some of the 
more adventurous young warriors of the tribe joined in the 
exciting game. The chiefs, at the head of whom was Canon- 
cliet, had hitherto resisted the importunities of Philip, and 
refused to take any open part in the conflict. It was quite 
evident, however, that their sympathies were with him, and 
that their pretended neutrality was only preserved until they 
should be able to discover which scale of the trembling bal- 
ance was likely to preponderate. There was another motive 

* Bancroft, ii. 104 ; Trumbull, i. 334. t Drake, b. iii. 31, 
X Hubbard. 



THE KAKRAGANSETTS. 269 

than that of mere policy, for the inaction of the Narra- 
gansetts. 

When the Mayflower first anchored off the coast that has 
since been so celebrated in song and story, the Narragan- 
setts were the most wealthy and numerous of all the New 
England tribes. Even the pestilence, that had a few years 
before swept off such numbers of the other Indians, had 
passed by their wigwams and left them untouched. They 
lived in the south-western part of what is now Rhode Island, 
and all the tribes that dotted the shore along the western line 
of Narragansett Bay paid them tribute. Even Massasoit, 
the chief of the Wampanoags, was subject to them, and as a 
matter of course his tributaries at Shawmut and Neponsit, 
must in some sense have acknowledged their dominion. 

The pestilence had thinned the ranks of the Wampanoag 
warriors to such a degree that the Narragansett sachems had 
easily subdued them. Hence the readiness of Massasoit and 
his tributaries to make an alliance with the people of Ply- 
mouth that should enable them to throw off this irksome 
bondage. To the alliance established between the English 
and Massasoit, Canonicus and Miantinomoh, though it cost 
them perhaps one half of their subjects, submitted in silence. 
The loss that the Narragansetts sustained when the Wam- 
panoags thus achieved their independence, was hailed by 
Sassacus, chief sachem of the Pequots, with joy, as it weakened 
a powerful neighbor and rival. But Sassacus was too good a 
politician not to see, after watching for a little while the 
growth and policy of the English, that they would finally be 
the lords of the whole country unless they could be swept 
off at a single stroke. To this end he proposed to the Nar- 
ragansett sachems an alliance, and offered to merge all their 
old quarrels in this last struggle for existence. But the Nar- 
ragansetts had enjoyed a long interval of peace. Their 
warriors, from a disuse of their weapons and old arts, had 
become enervated and disinclined to them, and had turned 
their attention to the acquisition of wealth, and to the refine- 
ments of a more advanced stage of civilized life, than be- 



270 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

longed to the tribes contiguous to them. The Narragansetts 
were then the mechanics and manufacturers of the Indians. 
At their principal village they made a large share of the 
peag that passed so current among the several nations of 
New England. Here, too, was manufactured pottery on a 
large scale, and other household utensils. Nor were they 
negligent of agriculture, as the supplies of corn that they 
furnished to those Indians who were destitute, and the vast 
stores that were found deposited in their humble granaries 
when their last hour of agony had come, bore witness. 

On these accounts this ancient and generous tribe declined 
to connect themselves with the dangerous enterprise of Sas- 
sacus, and partly for the same cause, I doubt not, they 
shrunk at first from the still more adventurous designs of 
Philip. 

Resolved to induce the Narragansetts to settle upon some 
fixed policy either of active ,alliance or of neutrality, the 
commissioners of the colonies came to the conclusion, imme- 
diately on the breaking out of the war, that it was best to 
make a treaty with them, and it was thought safest to send 
the army, that had gone to the relief of Svvansey, forward 
into their country, to facilitate the negotiations by that most 
persuasive of all arguments, military force. Accordingly, 
this had been done before the fight at Pocasset Neck, and on 
the 15th of July, a treaty was concluded between the colo- 
nies and the six Narragansett sachems, in which it was stip- 
ulated that there should be perpetual peace between the 
parties, that the Narragansetts should return all goods stolen 
from the English, and that they should harbor neither Philip 
nor any of his subjects ; but if any of the Wampanoags 
should take refuge among them, they should kill them. 

On the part of the English, it was agreed that the Narra- 
gansetts should receive forty coats for Philip if they would 
take him and surrender him alive, and twenty for his head ; 
for one of his warriors, two coats, and one for every head. 
The Indians were compelled to give hostages for the faithfid 
performance of this harsh and forced treaty. Had they kept 



[1675.] CAPT. LATHROP KILLED. 271 

it long, it would have been more wonderful than that they 
broke it as early as they did.* 

Soon after the unhappy loss of Beers and his men, it was 
thought best to establish a magazine at Hadley and garrison 
the town. At Deerfield there were three thousand bushels 
of wiieat in the stack, and for the use of the garrison it was 
determined to transport it to Hadley. Captain Lathrop, 
with eighty-eight young men, " the flower of Essex county," 
was sent with teams to accomplish the work. He had 
loaded it in sacks and was on his way to Hadley, when, in 
passing through a secluded dell, and at a moment when his 
soldiers, without anticipating danger, were plucking and 
eating the ripe clusters of wild grapes that hung temptingly 
from the trees that shaded their path, they were attacked by 
a large body of Indians so suddenly and with such ferocity 
that, notwithstanding the desperate resistance that they made, 
they were nearly all cut off^.f Lathrop himself was among 
the slain. Mosely, who was not far off with seventy men, 
came to the rescue. He found the woods filled with Indians. 
He computed their number at one thousand warriors, and so 
emboldened were they by their recent success, that they did 
not seek to hide themselves, but came out boldly and dared 
him to fight with them. 

"Come, Mosely, come," said the insulting chiefs, "you 
seek Indians, you want Indians, here is Indians enough for 
you." 

From eleven o'clock until almost night, the old privateer, 
aided by his daring lieutenants. Savage and Pickering, con- 
tested this bloody field with them. At last the English were 
compelled to retreat. With a strange mixture of savage im- 
providence and rage, the Indians cut open the sacks of wheat 
and some feather-beds that lay scattered about among the 
dead bodies, and strewed their contents upon the winds. 
Then with yells they commenced the pursuit. A woful 
flight it would have been, as the Indians were acquainted 

* Trumbull, i. 331, 332. 

+ Hubbard's Narrative, 38; Bancroft, ii. 104; Trumbull, i. 334. 



272 nisTOEY OF Connecticut. 

with all the passes of the woods, and night was setting darkly 
in to befriend them.* 

Just at the moment when the little army seemed hurrying 
to an inevitable doom, again appeared that good angel. 
Major Treat, with one hundred Englishmen and seventy 
Mohegans from Connecticut. A sight of this hero — always 
so careless of himself, always so solicitous for others — 
inspired the retreating English with confidence. The tide 
was turned, and the Indians now sought the double covert of 
night and shade. They had little occasion to boast at their 
next war-dance, for they left ninety-six dead warriors upon 
the field, whose life-blood had mingled with that of their 
enemies to tinge the waters of the little stream that can not 
yet lose the name of "Bloody Brook. "f 

About the middle of September, the congress had ordered 
one thousand men to be raised for the general defense, 
half of whom were to be dragoons. Of these, Connecticut 
was ordered to raise three hundred and fifteen men for her 
proportion. A large part of this force was placed under the 
command of Major Treat, and employed in protecting the 
border towns in Massachusetts. J 

The Springfield Indians had for forty years kept their faith 
with the English, and had long withstood the solicitations of 
Philip. But when they saw that Northfield and Deerfield had 
fallen before him, and that he appeared every day to gain 
ground, they declared for him. Philip had resolved to attack 
Springfield and burn it. The Springfield Indians, therefore, 
on the evening before the contemplated attack upon the 
town, took him and three hundred of his warriors into their 
fort. The plot was discovered by Toto, a Windsor Indian, 
that verv evening, and messengers were sent off in haste to 
inform Major Treat, who lay at Westfield with the Con- 
necticut troops. § The people of Springfield, however, would 

* See Drake, b. iii. 32 ; I. Mather's Hist, of the War, p. 12. 

t In 1835, the anniversary of the sanguinary event above referred to was held 
at " Bloody Brook," on which occasion an oration was delivered by his excellency 
Gov. Everett, i Trumbull, i. 334— note. § Drake, iii. 32, 33 ; Trumbull, i. 33". 



[1675.] DESTEUCTION OF SPRINGFIELD. 273 

not believe the report, and Lieut. Cooper, who had com- 
mand at Springfield, early in the morning rode out towards 
the Indian fort to see for himself what was the state of affairs 
there. The man who rode by his side was shot dead, and 
Cooper was mortally wounded. Although shot several times 
through the body, he still kept his horse, and, riding furiously 
to the garrison, gave the alarm.* 

Philip, with his new allies, now commenced a resolute 
attack upon the place, and began to set fire to the buildings. 
Never was a people in a more hopeless condition, and never 
was a garrison more inadequate to the defense of a place or 
to protect itself from destruction, than the one that had been 
thus suddenly deprived of a rash but brave commander. It 
seemed as if nothing could avert the ruin that hung over the 
garrison and the town. 

Meanwhile the news of Toto's disclosure reached Major 
Treat, and he made all haste to rescue the besieged. But 
for want of boats he was delayed so long in crossing the 
river with his army that before he reached the scene of 
action, the destruction of Springfield was consummated. 
Thirty dwelling houses, and many other buildings were al- 
ready in ashes. With his usual address, Major Treat soon 
drove the enemy from the place, and saved the inhabitants 
from promiscuous slaughter. Their property he came too 
late to save. Major Pyncheon and Mr. Purchas lost each 
one thousand pounds, and the large and valuable library of 
Mr. Glover, the clergyman, as well as his house, was 
destroyed. f 

On the 14th of October, the General Assembly of Con- 
necticut met, and, in consideration of the gallant services 
rendered by Major Treat, gave him a public expression of 
thanks for his brave conduct, and appointed him commander 
of all the troops to be raised against the enemy. J 

The Rev. Mr. Fitch, of Norwich, had informed the Assem- 
bly that a large body of Indians was approaching that town, 
and had requested that troops might be sent to defend it.. 

* TrumbuU. + Trumbull, i. 33.5. i Colonial Records, ii. 266. 

18 



274 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Major Treat was therefore directed to repair to Noi-wich at 
once.* This order was soon countermanded, and he was 
sent to the relief of Northampton. For this place he imme- 
diately set off. 

Philip was now in the midst of a series of brilliant suc- 
cesses, that elated his spirits to a high degree, and inspired 
his warriors and large body of adherents with great confi- 
dence. With a body of about eight hundred warriors, he 
made a sudden attack upon Hadley.f So well had he con- 
trived the assault, that every part of the place felt the shock 
at the same moment. But Hadley was defended by some 
brave officers and soldiers, who made a stand against the 
enemy, until the arrival of several small detachments from 
the neighboring garrisons. Major Treat, with his little 
army, hastened from Northampton and I'eached Hadley 
while the battle was yet doubtful. He opened such a 
deadly fire upon the Indians that they soon fled. Philip in 
this action sustained a severe loss, and his warriors were so 
disheartened by the blow that the main body of them retired 
to the Narragansett country. Still, little depredating parties 
prowled around the scattered dwellings of the frontier settle- 
ments, and did whatever harm they could to the English. J 

The intelligence given by Mr. Fitch, and coming from 
other sources, that the eastern border towns of Connecticut 
were in danger of being attacked, induced the General As- 
sembly to take active measures for the protection of all the 
border towns in this colony. To this end, at the October 
session before alluded to, it was ordered that every county 
should raise sixty dragoons, well mounted, equipped and 
provisioned, to be ready when called to aid in the de- 
fense of the colony. Captain Avery was also placed at the 
head of forty Englishmen from New London, Stonington 
and Lyme, with as many Pequots as he should deem neces- 
sary to protect that part of the country, and to annoy the 
enemy at his own discretion. § 

* Colonial Records, ii. 265. t Drake ; Ti-umbull. ^ Trumbull, i. 336. 
§ Colonial Records, ii. 2G8. 



[1675.] SUFFERINGS OF OUR TROOPS. 275 

Captain John Mason, worthy to bear the honored name 
of the hero of the Pequot war, was appointed to command 
another party of twenty Englishmen and the Mohegan In- 
dians, to act with Avery, or separately from him, as was 
found most advisable. A company of one hundred and 
twenty dragoons was raised to act under the immediate 
command of Major Treat. It was ordered that all the 
towns should be fortified, and various other measures were 
taken to protect the weak and remote settlements.* 

The persuasive arts of Philip to bring over Canonchet to 
his views, had by this time prevailed so far that the Narra- 
gansett chief was induced to take into his protection the 
Wampanoags and other tribes who sought shelter in his 
country. Whether Canonchet invited them, is not certainly 
known, but he gave them a friendly reception, and that was 
regarded by the colonies as a breach of the treaty that the 
presence of an army in his country had compelled him to 
sign. Besides, the congress had by this time become well 
satisfied that the young Narragansett warriors had violated 
the neutrality by actually engaging in the war, as some of 
them were reported to have returned home wounded. It 
was feared that the old Narragansett heroism was at length 
beginning to be roused. Of course, such a prospect could 
not do less than alarm the English, when they remembered 
that the tribe was reputed to have at least two thousand 
good fighting men, and one thousand muskets. f I do not 
believe that the Narragansetts had so many warriors, nor is 
it probable that they could produce a fourth part that num- 
ber of fire-arms. That the English, however, believed the 
story, is quite certain. 

Winter was fast pressing on. If these warriors should be 
added to those already engaged in the cause of Philip, and 
should be allowed to betake themselves to the woods the 
next summer, where they could hide themselves and waylay 
the English, it was feared that the horrors of war, already so 
bloody and devastating, would be fearfully increased. The 

* Colonial Records, ii. 268. t Trumbull, i. 337. 



276 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

fate of Hutchinson, Beers and Lathrop, with their parties, 
the desolation of villages, horrible murders, mutilations of 
dead bodies, unparalleled in barbarity, painful captivities, 
and famine vi^orse than all, bore witness of the beginning of 
the strugsfle. What was to be its horrid end ? 

After some deliberation, the Congress decided to raise an 
army of one thousand men, to attack the Narragansetts in 
their principal fort in the winter. Massachusetts furnished 
five hundred and twenty-seven men, made up of six compa- 
nies of foot and a troop of horse under command of Major 
Appleton. Plymouth provided one hundred and fifty-eight 
men, in two companies, led by Bradford and Gorham. Con- 
necticut was to have brought into the field, as her quota, 
three hundred and fifteen men, but she sent three hundred 
Englishmen and one hundred and fifty Mohegan and Pequot 
Indians, in five companies, under the charge of Captains 
Seeley, Gallup, Mason, Watts and Marshall. This brave 
corps of soldiers was under the command of Major Treat. 
Josiah Winslow, governor of Plymouth Colony, was the 
commander-in-chief of the expedition.* 

The utmost care was taken to provide for the wants of the 
troops, and after doing all that could be done to guard 
against the extremes of hunger, snow, cold, disease and 
wounds, the 2d of December was appointed to be observed 
as a day of fasting and prayer. Major Treat arrived with 
his forces at Patty quamscot on the 17th of December, in- 
tending to have encamped in the houses that he expected to 
find there for his reception. But the Indians, only a day or 
two before, had burned all the houses and barns, and killed 
ten men and five women and children. He was obliged to 
pass the night without a roof to shelter his troops. 

The next day he formed a junction with the forces from 
Massachusetts and Plymouth. The night of the 18th was 
cold and stormy, but the army was obliged to spend it in 
the open field, unprotected as before. On the morning of 
the 19th, at dawn, they began their march towards the fort 
* Trumbull, i. 337. 



[1675.] ATTACK UPON THE NARRAGANSETT FORT. 277 

or principal residence of the Narragansetts, that was about 
fifteen miles from the place where they had encamped. 
Mosely and Davenport, with the troops from Massachusetts, 
led the van, followed by Major Appleton and Captain Oliver. 
General Winslow, with the two Plymouth companies, 
marched in the center, and Major Treat brought up the 
rear with the Connecticut forces.* 

The army marched on resolutely through the deep snow, 
without so much as taking any refreshment except what 
they snatched on the way, until about one o'clock, when 
they reached the fortified town of the enemy. It stood upon 
an eminence in the center of a vast swamp. Philip with his 
allies had erected palisades, and added as much as his means 
would permit to the natural strength of the place. But by 
the treachery of an Indian named Peter, who was a prisoner 
in the hands of the English, the fort was discovered. It is 
not likely that any one of the English could have found it in 
the immense area, half marsh, half moor, weary as they were 
with their march, and suffering as they did from hunger and 
cold. It was already one o'clock, and they had no time to 
lose, for night would soon overtake them, and the Indians 
would soon be upon them. So adroitly was the fort con- 
structed, that it could be approached only at a single point 
with any chance of success, and even that avenue to it was 
guarded by a block-house in front, with flankers to cover a 
cross-fire. The island occupied by the fortification con- 
tained about four acres of ground, and is believed to have 
been covered, as well as the swamp that surrounded it, by 
primitive pine and cedar trees. This area was not only 
surrounded with high, strong palisades, but it was made still 
more formidable by a huge irregular hedge of fallen trees, 
about a rod in thickness. The sole entrance that appeared 
at all assailable was near a large tree, that had been felled 
in such a position as to form a bridge across a body of water 
that lay between the fort and the main swamp, that extended 
around it. This log was four or five feet above the ground. 
* Hubbard's Narrative, 104. 



278 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

As soon as the English army entered the swamp, they dis- 
covered an advance guard of the Indians, and immediately 
fired upon them. The enemy returned the fire and then 
retreated toward the block-house. Without waiting to form 
themselves, or reconnoitre the fort, the Massachusetts forces 
followed their officers, mounted the tree, and one by one, as 
many as could pass upon it, entered the fort, but were sub- 
jected to a raking fire of musketry from Philip's marksmen, 
who were stationed in the block-house, as well as at the 
points most favorable to repel them. 

They were totally unable to contend against such fearful 
odds, and such as were not instantly killed, were driven 
back out of the fort. Yet the soldiers followed their gallant 
captains again and again over this exposed crossing-place, to 
make good the places of the slain, and as often the fire from 
the block-house and flankers, and other points of entrance, 
swept them away.* 

As it turned out, there was a good deal more courage than 
prudence in this hasty attack upon the fort, for before the 
main body of the army could wade through the deep snow, 
and come up in aid of those who had attempted to force the 
entrance, Captains Johnson and Davenport, with many of the 
Massachusetts men, were beyond human help.f Major 
Treat, as he had brought up the rear of the whole army, was 
the last to reach the fatal pass. Regardless of danger, the 
Connecticut captains, one after another, led up their men, 
inspiring them with encouraging words, the last still supply- 
ing the places of those who went before them, and keeping 
good the numbers of undaunted hearts who fell before the 
increasing and murderous fire of the Indians. Three of the 
five Connecticut captains were killed. J Marshall fell dead 
from the fatal tree. The English had not looked for such an 
obstinate defence. 

While this terrible slaughter of the Connecticut troops 

* Holmes, ii. 376 ; Hutchinson, i. 2T1 ; Drake, b. iii. 34, 35 ; Trumbull, i. 
338, 339. 

t Hutchinson, i. 271. i Holmes, ii. 376. 



[1675.] THE FORT TAKEN AND DESTROYED. 279 

was going on, Captain Mosely forced an entrance through 
or over the hedge where it was weakest, and attacked the 
Indians in the rear — opening a fire upon their backs as they 
stood crowded closely together, with large muskets loaded 
with pistol bullets. The Indians now fled from their first 
position, and took refuge in their wigwams, and in every 
nook that afforded them a screen behind which to discharge 
their shot. 

" They run, they run," shouted the English captains, as 
they cheered on their men.* 

At this critical moment fell Captains Gallup and Seeley, 
both shot dead in front of their respective companies. 
About this time Mason received a wound that proved to be 
mortal. At last the English gained the center of the fort, 
and after a long and bloody conflict, put the Indians to 
flight. With frightful yells, they flew into the surrounding 
thickets, leaving the fort in the hands of the English, who, 
at a dear rate, had bought the victory. There were six 
hundred wigwams within the fort, containing ample shelter 
for four thousand human beings. There were also large 
stores of corn and immense quantities of wampum, and of 
those utensils that were wrought in such abundance and with 
such skill by the Narragansetts.f 

There had been three hundred Indian warriors slain,J and 
others who were wounded died in the cold cedar swamp, 
whither they had taken refuge. About the same number 
were taken prisoners, besides three hundred women and 
children, who afterwards drank to the bitter dregs the cup 
of captivity and sorrow. Captain Church, who was present 
as a volunteer, begged that the fort and provisions might be 
spared for the shelter and supply of the enemy, and especially 
for the protection of the wounded. But other counsels pre- 

* See Drake, b. iii. 35. 

i Hutchinson, i. 272, 273 ; Trumbull, i. 339 ; Bancroft, ii. 105. 

^ Some authorities place the number as high as seven hundred. The number 
given above, however, is that contained in a letter in Hutchinson (1. 233,) attribu- 
ted to Jlajor Bradford, who was a participant in the fight. 



280 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

vailed. The village was burned to ashes, and all the valu- 
able stores that it contained, with the old men, women, and 
children, whose number history has never recorded, and 
whose agony, though brief, was only heard in its full signifi- 
cance by the ear of a mercy that is infinite. 

What a commentary did that winter scene — the crackling 
flames melting the snow from the cedars and pines, and 
scorching their green leaves, the blackened bodies half con- 
sumed, the shivering English soldier whose blood was 
staunched more by the numbing touch of cold than by the 
surgeon who was himself paralyzed, the poor Indian fugi- 
tives, none the less miserable that they were savages, cower- 
ing unprotected beneath the bushes or to the leeward of the 
snow-drift, to shun the wrath of such a sky as belongs to 
New England in the dead months of the year — what a com- 
mentary upon the cruelty, the misery of war ! 

Six of the English captains had been killed, one had re- 
ceived his death-blow, and eighty of the soldiers had been 
either killed or mortally wounded. One hundred and fifty 
others, who had been injured in the action, recovered.* But 
the sufferings of the army might be said only to have just 
begun. Night was closing around them ; the only screen 
that could have been afforded them in that desolate waste, 
was the comfortable fort, with its six hundred houses, that 
they had burned in spite of the wise admonitions of Church. 
They had marched fifteen miles since day-break, and fought 
a battle that had lasted for three full hours. It would be 
destructive to them were they to encamp upon the upland 
or upon the moor. There was then no alternative. Weary 
as they were, they must again take up their line of march, 
and spend the night as they had spent the morning, in 
wading through the snow. 

Just as the sun was going down, they gathered up their 

two hundred dead and wounded men, and set out on their 

return-march to head quarters, a distance of about eighteen 

miles. It was a night never to be forgotten by those who 

* Trumbull, i. 340. 



[1675.] THE CONNECTICUT TEOOPS. 281 

survived it ; a cold, stormy night. The Winding snow pur- 
sued them all the way, falling in vast quantities over the 
undistinguishable woods and swamps, obeying the impulses 
of the howling blast that ranged over the wide, desolate 
scene. 

It was past midnight when the troops reached their des- 
tination. It would be idle for me to attempt to delineate the 
sufferings of the wounded soldiers. A part of them, as the 
night and storm advanced, became insensible. The pulses 
grew feebler, the cheek grew paler, and the frame, so 
languid and pliable at first to the grasp of those who bore it, 
stiffened into its final repose. 

Of this army of one thousand men, at least four hundred 
were unfit for duty. The Connecticut troops were more 
disabled than the others,* partly because they had entered 
the fort when the fire was deadliest, and partly from their 
previous fatigue in marching from Stonington to Pattyquam- 
scot, and then passing the night in the open air. Some of 
the soldiers were frozen to death. Of the three hundred 
Englishmen from our little republic, eighty were killed and 
wounded — twenty men in Seeley's company, an equal num- 
ber in Gallup's, fourteen under the command of Watts, nine 
of Mason's, and fourteen of Marshall's men. Of these, about 
forty were either killed on the field or died of their wounds. 
Thus half of the loss of the fatal day, that broke the pride of 
Philip and laid waste the city of the Narragansetts, fell upon 
Connecticut. f Major Treat, who had been in the hottest 
part of the battle, narrowly escaped death from a bullet 
that passed through the rim of his hat. The thanksgivings 
that went up to heaven from the lips of our people, were 
mingled, as they always have been when our State has partici- 
pated in deeds of valor, with the wailings of widowhood and 
the cries of orphan children. In the eloquent words em- 
ployed by the General Assembly to commemorate the event, 

* See Gov. Dudley's letter in Hutchinson, i. 274. 
+ Note in Trumbull, i. 341. 



282 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

" Our mourners, over all the colony, witness for our men, 
that they were not unfaithful in that day."* 

Under these circumstances. Major Treat thought it neces- 
sary to return home and recruit his troops. f Indeed, this 
was the only course that he could have adopted, unless he 
had intended to sacrifice one half of the remainder of his 
men. 

The English now thought the opportunity would be favor- 
able to establish peace with Philip, and various proposals 
were made. These overtures were answered by the burning 
of Lancaster and Medfield, and by the killing of Captains 
Pierce and Wads worth. J 

In February 1676, a large number of Connecticut volun- 
teers, belonging for the most part to New London, Norwich, 
and Stonington, were formed into companies under Major 
Palmes, Captain George Denison, Captain James Avery, and 
Captain John Stanton, further to prosecute the war against 
the Indians. With them were associated some Mohegans 
under Onecho, a son of Uncas, some Pequots under their 
chief, and about twenty Narragansetts belonging to Nini- 
gret, who, by keeping his neutrality, doubtless saved his life. 
These companies ranged the Narragansett country from one 
end to the other in quest of the enemy. Nor did they work 
in vain. Canonchet, or, as he is now commonly known in 
history, Nanuntenoo, the son of Miantinomoh, and the chief 
sachem of the Narragansetts, had escaped the destruction of 
his principal town, and had still many brave fighting men 
with him. Some time in March, he had ventured down 
from the north to Seekonk, near the seat of Philip, to get 
seed-corn with which to plant the towns upon Connecticut 
river that had been deserted by the English. Denison, who 
had been ranging the woods with his party for several days 
in search of the enemy, came suddenly upon a trail near 
Blackstone river, and soon learned from a squaw whom he 
took captive, that Nanuntenoo was in his wigwam near the 

* See note in Trumbull, i. 341. + See Hubbard's Ind. Wars, 135, 144. 
i Holmes, ii. 378, 379. 



[1676.] CAPTURE OF NANUNTENOO. 283 

river. Denison lost no time in taking measures to secure 
him. The chief was apprised of his danger, as the English 
approached, and ran for his life towards the river, which 
Catapazet, the chief who commanded Ninigret's men, him- 
self a Narragansett, and who thought he recognized the 
fugitive, pursued him with all speed. Other Indians and 
English, who were swift-footed, followed close behind. 
Finding himself hard pressed, the sachem threw off first his 
blanket and then his silver-laced coat that had been pre- 
sented to him at Boston. This garment was well known, and 
as there could now be no doubt of his personal identity, the 
pursuers took courage and ran with still greater eagerness. 
In the company was a Pequot who outran all his compan- 
ions, and who gained so fast upon Nanuntenoo, as he was 
flying along the bank of the river, that the chief was com- 
pelled to plunge into the current before he had reached the 
ford. Even as it was, he would probably have escaped, had 
not his foot slipped from the smooth surface of a stone, and 
in fallina; brought his sun under water. So much time was 
lost by this accident, that also took away the power of de- 
fending himself, that the Pequot came upon him and seized 
him without difficulty. 

Like his father, whose fate he must have remembered, 
Nanuntenoo made no resistance, and like him scorned to 
ask for a life that he knew was forfeit. 

Robert Stanton came up, and with the forwardness of 
youth ventured to ask him some questions. At first the 
chief looked at him in silence, and then regarding his beard- 
less face with hereditary scorn, he replied in broken English, 
" You too much child ; no understand matters of war. Let 
your brother or chief come. Him I will answer." He kept 
his word.* 

When his life was tendered him on condition that he and 
his nation would submit, he rejected the ofler with indig- 
nation. Then they threatened him with death if he failed to 
fall in with their terms. He calmly replied that killing him 

* Tiumbull, i. 344, 345 ; Bancroft, ii. 106. 



284 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

would not put an end to the war. Some of them taunted 
him with the violation of his treaty, and with the boast that 
he had made that " he would burn up the English in their 
houses, and that he would not deliver up a Wampanoag or 
the paring of a Wampanoag's nail." "Others," said the 
chief, quietly, " were as forward for the war as myself, and I 
desire to hear no more about it." 

Denison took him to Stonington. A council of war was 
held, and it was decided that he must be shot. When the 
sentence of this court-martial of volunteers was made known 
to him, his only answer was, " I like it well. I shall die 
before my heart is soft, or I have said any thing unworthy 
of myself "f I find in the history of Greece and Rome no 
record of heroism more striking, nor a dying speech more in 
consonance with the philosophy of self-sustaining paganism, 
than the last words of Nanuntenoo. As his father was killed 
by Uncas, so the son of Uncas superintended the execution 
of the son of Miantinomoh. 

Thus perished the last of a line of monarchs, the noblest 
among the New England nations, and thus another tribe, the 
best and the most cultivated as well as the most powerful 
that inhabited the northern Atlantic coast, was swept away. 
The rest of the details of Philip's war are foreign to my 
purpose, and I shall here take my leave of the chief of the 
Wampanoags. 

One important feature of this war, however, remains to be 
delineated. At the election that took place on the 11th of 
May 1676, William Leete was chosen governor, and Robert 
Treat deputy governor. To carry on the war the Assembly 
voted to raise a standing army of three hundred and fifty 
men, who, with the friendly Indians, were to defend the 
country and harass the enemy. 

Major John Talcott was appointed to the chief command 

of these forces ; the Rev. Gershom Bulkley surgeon, and 

good Mr. James Fitch chaplain. The surgeon and chaplain 

were made a part of the council of war. Norwich was made 

* Trumbull ; Bancroft. 



[1676.] SUCCESS OF MAJOR TALCOTT. 285 

the first genera] rendezvous of the army, and from this place 
Talcoti marched about the first of June with some two hun- 
dred and fifty EngHshmen and two hundred Mohegans and 
Pequots, towards the Wabaquasset country, in quest of the 
enemy. But not an Indian was to be found, though they 
searched the woods faithfully in the old retreats of the sav- 
ages. The wigwams were all deserted, and the fortifications 
made of the tops of trees were without a warrior to man 
them. At Wabaquasset, Talcott destroyed the fortress and 
about fifty acres of corn, and on the 5th of June marched on 
to the country of the Nipmucks. There he killed nineteen 
Indians and took thirty-five prisoners. He then marched to 
Brookfield, and thence to Northampton. The army suffered 
fearfully from fatigue and famine before it reached North- 
hampton, and that march was long known to the people of 
our colony as the "long and hungry march." 

On the 12th of June a furious attack was made upon 
Hadley by about seven hundred Indians. Talcott soon 
arrived and saved the garrison and the town. The Indians 
were driven off" with such promptness that they were pre- 
vented, as is believed, from making attempts upon other 
towns that they had in their hearts devoted to destruction. 

Some time after this the Massachusetts forces arrived and 
joined Talcott's troops. The army then scoured the woods 
upon both banks of the river, destroying the dwellings of the 
fugitive enemy, breaking up their fisheries, and despoiling 
them in every way that they deemed likely to take from 
them the power to do mischief. Talcott went as far as 
Deerfield Falls and then returned. After he had spent about 
three weeks in that part of Massachusetts, he departed with 
his army through the wilderness towards the Narragansett 
country. On the 1st of July he came near a large body of 
Indians and took four of them. 

Two days after he surprised the main body of the enemy 
on the border of a large cedar swamp, and so skillfully did he 
dispose his forces and conduct the attack that he killed and 
took prisoners a large number. The rest fled into the swamp. 



286 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

This Talcott surrounded, and after a fight of about three 
hours killed and took captive one hundred and seventy-one 
Indians. In this hard-fought battle thirty-four Indian war- 
riors were killed, and after the action, ninety captives, 
who were fighting men, shared the same fate. Between 
forty and fifty women and children were preserved unhurt. 

That same day he marched his army to Providence and 
made an attack upon the Indians on the Neck, and after- 
wards upon those at Norwich. In these two places he killed 
and captured sixty-seven. Thus, in a little more than a 
month, he had killed and taken two hundred and thirty-eight 
hostile Indians, and had done much in other respects to 
cripple the resources of Philip. 

On the 5th of July, Talcott set out on his return march, 
and before he reached Connecticut took sixty more prison- 
ers. If we add to the killed and those taken alive by this 
gallant officer, those also who had fallen into the hands of 
the volunteers since the 1st of April of that year, we shall 
find that four hundred and twenty of the Indians had been 
subdued by Connecticut alone, in the space of about three 
months. When we add to this the depredations made upon 
the country of Philip's allies, the destruction of the houses and 
growing crops, and the carrying away of their corn, beans, 
and other valuables that stood them in the stead of money, 
we shall be able to form some adequate conception of the 
aid rendered by our little colony to her distressed neighbors. 

After his return. Major Talcott waited but a little while 
to recruit his men, and then stationed himself at Westfield. 
While there, he discovered a large party of the enemy flying 
towards the west. He pursued them, and on the third day, 
about midway between Westfield and Albany, he came up 
with them. They were lying upon the western bank of the 
Housatonick river, in a state of fancied security, without 
dreaming of the approach of the English. 

It was late in the afternoon when Talcott became aware 
of his proximity to them, and he deemed it unsafe to attack 
them at that hour. He therefore retreated silently to a suit- 



[1676.] TALCOTT'S STRATAGEM. 287 

able distance and caused his army to pass the night under 
arms. As the dawn drew on he ordered his troops to form 
in two divisions, the one to cross the river below the Indians, 
and advance upon them from the west ; the other to creep 
stealthily up to the eastern bank, and there lie in ambush 
until they should hear the gun that was to be fired by those 
who had crossed the river, as a signal that the savages were 
approaching within the range of their shot. When they 
heard this gun they were to open a deadly fire upon the 
Indians. This stratagem would have been attended with a 
fearful destruction of life had it not been partly defeated by 
an accident that the English could not have foreseen. A 
single Indian had left his fellows in a profound sleep, and 
had stolen down the river to catch fish. As the party upon 
the west bank was advancing to surprise his slumbering 
companions, he saw them and cried out in alarm " Owanux, 
Owanux !" He was instantly shot dead by an English sol- 
dier. This solitary musket shot was of course mistaken by 
the other party for the expected signal gun. Too hastily, 
therefore, for the success of the ambuscade, they arose and 
fired upon the startled Indians as they fled towards them. 
But the savages soon discovered their danger, and while the 
English who were coming up from the rear were too remote 
to do them much injury, they turned from the destructive 
bullets of the ambushed party, and ran along the bank of the 
river for their lives. Still, many of them fell victims to the 
enterprise. Nothing but the dense growth of the trees and 
bushes saved them from a total annihilation. The sachem 
of Quobaug (Brooklield) was killed and twenty-four other 
warriors. There were forty-five in all who were either 
killed or taken prisoners. Major Talcott in this war was 
second only to Major Treat in his practical, effective efforts 
to reduce the power of Philip and hasten his downfall. 



. CHAPTER XIII. 

ANDROSS ATTEMPTS TO LAND AT SAYBROOK. 

As a previous declaration of war had been made in Eng- 
land against the Dutch, that had caused much alarm in the 
colonies, and had induced the mother country to make com- 
mon cause with the people of New England, all interference 
on the part of the government with our civil affairs was for 
a time suspended. But no sooner were friendly relations 
again established between the two contending powers, than 
the old jealousy that had so long existed in England, against 
our growing strength, began to be revived. Private interest 
and ambition also seconded the views of the government. 

The Duke of York, who was by no means satisfied with 
the tenure by which he held his property in America, on the 
29th of June, 1674, procured a new patent, granting the 
same territory named in the old one. He resolved to follow 
up his title thus acquired, by possession, and immediately 
gave to Major, afterwai'ds Sir Edmund Andross, a commis- 
sion to be governor of New York and all the territories in 
those parts. 

With this paper to vouch for whatever arbitrary thing he 
might think proper to do, Andross sailed to New England. 

The boundaries of Connecticut, that had been so carefully 
defined by the king's commissioners ten years before, were 
totally disregarded by Major Andross, and he now laid claim, 
by virtue of his master's new patent, to all that part of Con- 
necticut lying west of Connecticut river.* Unless this 
outrageous demand shoulH be acceded to, he threatened the 
colony with an invasion. The astonishment and indignation 
of the people of the colony, at this disregard of their own 

* J. H. Trumbull's Colonial Rec, ii. 569 ; also see Doc. Hist, of N. York, 
iii. 78. 



[1675.] 



ANDROSS APPROACHES THE COAST, 289 



prior grant, ratified by a solemn award, knew no bounds. 
Although the war with Philip was impending, and the whole 
country was in a state of preparation for the uncertain issue, 
yet it was resolved by the governor and council of Connecti- 
cut, not to submit to a dismemberment of the colony. 

It was soon made known at Hartford that Andross was 
about to land at Saybrook, and that he intended, after having 
taken possession of that important post, to proceed to Hart- 
ford, New Haven, and other places, until he had made him- 
self ready to suppress the government of the people, and 
establish his own upon a firm footing. 

As soon as the tidings reached Hartford, that Andross was 
approaching the coast, detachments of militia were ordered 
to repair to Saybrook and New London as speedily as pos- 
sible.* Captain Thomas Bull was appointed to the com- 
mand of the garrison at Saybrook. The preparations made 
to oppose his landing with a hostile force were as vigorous 
as those against Philip, or the armament that had been raised 
ag^tinst the Dutch, during the war that had then just been 
brought to a close. 

On the 9th of July, the inhabitants of Saybrook, who were 
ignorant as well of the intended invasion as of the measures 
taken by the government to resist it, saw with alarm an 
armed fleet in the sound, making all sail for the fort.f 
Thus taken by surprise, they were at first thrown into much 
confusion, and were undetermined what they should do. 
But without instructions, as they were, from Hartford, they 
were not long in recovering their self-possession. They de- 
termined to meet the emergency manfully, and treat the 
invaders as enemies. 

., True to themselves and the popular government that they 
had sworn to support, the gallant militia, who scarcely needed 
to be officered, rallied as one man to defend the fort. Bull with 
his company soon arrived, and with great alacrity aided them 
in completing the enterprise that had been so nobly begun. 

* Holmes, i. 368 ; Trumbull, i. 328 ; Bancroft, ii. 404. 
+ Bancroft, ii. 403 ; Trumbull, i. 328. 
19 



290 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Meanwhile, a letter that Robert Chapman had written to 
the governor and council at Hartford, informing them of the 
approach of the armed force, had received a very character- 
istic answer, that could leave no doubt in the mind of Cap- 
tain Bull what would be expected of him. Never did a state 
paper issue in the name of a colonial government, that was 
couched in language expressive of more loyalty or tender 
regard for the king's honor. Indeed, the name and interer 
of " his majestic," if we follow the phraseology of the docB 
ment, make up the principal burden, and even the people i 
Connecticut are lost sight of in their zeal to maintain ikt, 
royal prerogative. I 

The letter is addressed to Mr. Chapman and to Captain 
Thomas Bull, and begins with the announcement that intelli- 
gence has just been received at Hartford of the arrival of two 
sloops of war from New York, bringing troops under JMajor 
Andross, who has been so considerate of the wants of the 
garrison and the town, as to pay them a visit with a view of 
lending them aid against the Indians. These gentlemen are 
then instructed to inform Major Andross that Connecticut 
has no occasion to trouble him in this matter, as she has al- 
ready provided for the defense of her own territory ; but to 
make him acquainted with the fact that Rhode Island is the 
seat of war, and that he is desired to repair thither without 
delay, "for the relief of the good people there, who are in 
distress." 

After making this charitable provision for the protection 
of their neighbors, by generously proposing to make every 
sacrifice in their favor, the governor and council, without 
intimating a suspicion that the visit of Andross could have 
arisen from any other than the promptings of a humane 
desire to save the colony from destruction, go on to say that 
if the Major shall desire to go ashore with any of his gentle- 
men for refreshments, they are to be treated with all due 
respect. 

Here, for some mysterious purpose not named in the 
letter, those to whom it was addressed were to make a 



[1675.] DIRECTIONS OF THE GENERAL COURT. 291 

decided stand. " And if so be those forces on board should 

endeavor to land at Saybrook, you are in his majesty's name 

to forbid their landing. Yet if they should offer to land, you 

are to wait their landing and to coynmand them to leave their 

arms on boar'd ; and then you may give them leave to land 

for necessary refreshing, peaceably, but so that they return 

Oil board again in a convenient time." Then kindling into 

n irrepressible flame of loyalty, and again losing sight of the 

;public in their zeal to protect from insult the sacred banner 

the British empire, they earnestly add, " and you are to 

eep the king's colors standing there under his majesty's 

ieutenant, the governor of Connecticut ; and if any other 

colors be set up there, you are not to suffer the?n to stand. 

And in general, whatsoever shall be done or attempted in 

opposition to the government here established by his majesty, 

you are to declare against, oppose and undo the same." 

Lest these general instructions should be liable to miscon- 
struction from not being sufficiently explicit, they particu- 
larize as follows : 

" If they make proclamations, you are to protest against 
them ; if they command the people to yield obedience to 
them, you are to forbid it, and to command them to continue 
in obedience to his majesty and his government here estab- 
lished ; and if they should endeavor to set up any thing, you 
may pull it down ; and if they dig up any trenches, you are 
to fill them up ; if they say they take possession, you are to 
say you keep possession for his majesty." 

After thus giving expression to their enthusiastic love of 
their monarch, as well in detail as in general, their habitual 
caution comes to the rescue ; but it will be seen from the 
context passage, that there lurks beneath the spirit of con- 
cealment, a terrible and deadly opposition. 

" You are, in his majesty's name, required to avoid striking 
the Jirst blow; but if they begin, then you are to defend 
yourselves." 

In the whole body of this letter, not a word is said of the 
claims of the Duke of York, nor is it so much as intimated 



292 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

that the governor and council are aware of the real inten- 
tions of the invader. The postscript alone touches upon 
this dangerous ground. " You are to keep your instructions 
to yourselves, and give no copies of it. If Major Andross 
desire a treaty, let him present vv^hat he desires in that 
respect."* 

On the 9th of July, the next day after the date of this 
letter, the General Assembly convened at Hartford, and pro- 
ceeded forthwith to draw up a declaration, protesting in the 
strongest terms against the conduct of Major Andross. This 
paper, unlike the letter of instructions sent to Bull, is very 
explicit in its terms. After a preamble, reciting the horrors 
of Indian warfare, and the critical condition of the colony, 
and after alluding to the king's charter as the basis of their 
political existence, the remonstrants say, " We can do no less 
than publicly declare and protest against the said Major 
Edmund Andross, and these his illegal proceedings ; also 
against all his aiders and abettors, as disturbers of the peace 
of his majesty's good subjects in this colony ; and that his 
and their actions in this juncture tend to the encouragement 
of the heathen to proceed in the effusion of blood." They 
add further that, " they shall unavoidably lay at his door," 
whatever evil consequences may flow from his conduct, and 
that they will use their utmost power and endeavor, expecting 
therein the assistance of Almighty God, to defend the good 
people of this colony from the said Major Andross' attempts." 
After commanding all the people, in the king's name, to resist 
the demands of Andross, and on no account to obey him or 
lend him any countenance, in any proceedings contrary to 

* I cannot doubt for a moment as to the authorship of this remarkable letter. 
Indeed, there was but one man then living in New England who could have 
framed it. The masterly use of language, the adroitness with which conclusions 
so startling are drawn from premises so innocent, its politeness, its firmness, its 
childlike transparency of language giving forth a light that can neither dazzle nor 
mislead — in a word, its exquisite diplomatic touch — betrays the hand of John 
Winthrop in every line. The whole letter may be found in vol. ii. of J. H. 
Trumbull's Colonial Records, pp. 334, 335. 



[1675.] ANDROSS AND BULL. 293 

the charter and the laws of the colony, the protest closes 
with the loyal words, " God save the king."* 

This protest was approved by every member of the Gen- 
eral Assembly, and sent off immediately by express to Say- 
brook, with instructions to Bull to propose to Major Andross 
that the matter in dispute should be I'eferred to commis- 
sioners, to meet at any place in the colony that he might 
choose, t 

Early on the morning of the 12th of July, Major Andross 
begged that he might be permitted to go on shore and have 
an interview with the ministers and principal officers. This 
request was granted, and he accordingly landed with his 
suite. While this was going on, the express arrived from 
Hartford with the protest and letter of instructions. With 
the blunt courtesy that was befitting a man of his straight- 
forward nature, Captain Bull, accompanied by his officers 
and the principal gentlemen of the town, met the major on 
the beach and told him that he had just received orders to 
make a treaty with him, and told him of the terms. 

The object of Andross in going ashore, was to intimidate 
the officers and the people, by reading the king's new patent 
to the Duke of York, and the Duke's commission to himself 
under that grant. He, therefore, with much haughtiness, 
rejected the proposal made by the General Assembly, and as 
he and his retinue had now come within hearing distance of 
Bull and his companions, he commanded his clerk to read 
aloud the two papers that gave him his pretended authority. 

Little was Major Andross aware of the character of the 
man with whom he was dealing. With an authority that 
seemed to set at defiance both king and duke, Captain Bull 
addressed himself to the clerk and imperiously commanded 
him to forbear. Balked in his first attempt, the secretary 
attempted to persist in the execution of his office. 

" Forbear !" reiterated the captain, in a tone that even 
Andross himself did not think it safe to oppose. 

* Colonial Records, ii. 261, 262. t Trumbull, i. 330. 



294 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Major Andross, with all his faults, was not without fine 
traits of character, and was struck with a soldier's admira- 
tion at the coolness and intrepidity of the captain. 

" What is your name ?" he asked. 

"My name is Bull, sir," was the prompt answer. 

" Bull !" responded the governor, " It is a pity that your 
horns are not tipped with silver."* 

The governor saw that it was idle to attempt to overawe 
the officers or the inhabitants, and that they would overpower 
him with numbers should he resort to coercion. 

With this equivocal compliment to the captain, and with 
a bitter remark on the ingratitude of the colony and the 
meagerness of their protest, he took a hasty leave of them. 
With a politeness that could hardly have been agreeable to 
him, the militia of the town escorted him to his boat. In a 
few hours, his sloops were out of sight, f 

The General Assembly regarded these proceedings of An- 
dross not only as illegal, but as a marked insult to the col- 
ony. After having read a detailed account of what had 
happened at Saybrook, they sent a declaration to the several 
towns, under the seal of the colony and signed by its secre- 
tary, to be published to all the inhabitants. They say that 
"the good people of his majesty's colony of Connecticut 
have met with much trouble and molestation from Major 
Edmund Andross' challenge and attempts to surprise the 
main fort of said colony, which they have so rightfully ob- 
tained, so long possessed and defended against all invasions 
of Dutch and Indians, to the great grievance of his majesty's 
good subjects in these settlements, and to despoil the happy 
government by charter from his majesty granted to them- 
selves, and under which they have enjoyed many halcyon 
days of peace and tranquillity." The declaration further 
informs the people that the Assembly had desired Mr. Win- 
throp and Mr. Richards, who were about to visit England, 
to carry with them a copy of all the papers relating to the 

* Trumbull, i. 330. + TrumbuU. 



[1676.] DEATH OF GOVERNOR WINTHROP. 295 

invasion of Andross, and anticipate, by a full narrative of 
the affair, any false statements that he might make at court 
to the prejudice of the colony.* 

The colony, in the midst of her successes, was destined to 
suffer the keenest anguish. One after another, her patriarchs 
had departed from her borders or found a refuge in her 
bosom. Winthrop was now to follow them. He had been 
chosen a commissioner to represent her in the Congress of 
the United Colonies in May 1676, and, true to her interests 
in age as he had proved himself in his youth, he had gone to 
Boston early in the spring of 1676 to discharge the trust, and 
to lend to New England in her darkest day, the light of his 
counsels. There he was taken suddenly ill, and, after a 
brief period of sickness, died.f 

It is difficult for me to consider him as an individual char- 
acter, so inseparably is his bright image blended with that 
of the colony herself during the most doubtful and at the 
same time most glorious period of her existence. An ideal 
of humanity, setting forth upon a journey that was to involve 
the exploration of paths untried and wild ; too full of hope 
long to remain distrustful of the future ; too sincere a believer 
in the revealed will of God to doubt the comprehensiveness 
and unfailing resources of his providence ; too intelligent and 
large-hearted for bigotry on the one hand ; on the other, too 
keenly alive to the thrill of those finer fibers of the soul that 
can alone ennoble man's nature and elevate his reason into 
a faculty that may be called divine, ever to become a 
sceptic ; a fair ideal, rather than an individual man with the 
frailties of our race binding him to the earth with chains, 
does he sometimes present himself to my contemplation. 
Whenever we would revive in our breasts the spirit of de- 
votion to the cause of liberty, that better liberty setting 
bounds to itself that the very laws of its being will not 
permit it to pass ; whenever we hallow with a sigh some 
half-forgotten memory of those early days when the sons of 

* Colonial Records, ii. 263, 264. 

t ]\Iathfr's IMutriialia. b. ii. p. 1-15 ; Holmes, i. 387. 



296 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Connecticut did not blush to own their parentage ; when we 
see rash youth josthng gray-haired age aside, and hot im- 
pulse blinding the eyes of wisdom with the dust of his char- 
iot-wheels as he drives swiftly past on his destructive career 
— then, if at no other moment, the strong bright eye, the 
benevolent face, with its indescribable blending of caution 
and enthusiasm, reveals to us the Winthrop of the old time, 
such as the poets and painters of a day yet to come will 
delineate him. But this is not my task, and I return to give 
a brief account of the Winthrop of history. 

John Winthrop, of Connecticut, was the oldest son of the 
Hon. John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts, and was 
born at Groton in England, in the year 1605.* He was not 

* The Winthrops are said to have come from Northumberland, whence they 
removed into Nottinghamshire and settled in a httle village which still bears the 
name of Winthrop, near Newark. From this place tlie ancestors of the American 
branch of the family went to London. As this has been one of the most eminent 
families in New England, we here insert the Winthrop genealogy in a single 
line. 

1. Adam Winthrop, a lawyer of distinction, soon after the dissolution of the 
monasteries by Henry VIII., was lord of the manor of Groton, county Suffolk, 
where he died, and was buried Nov. 12, 1562. 

2. Adam Winthrop (his son) was also bred to the law ; married Anne 
Browne, 20 Feb. 1579. His burial appears upon the register at Groton, 29 
March, 1623. 

3. John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts, was born in Groton, 12 .Jan. 
1588; came to New England in 1630; died in Boston, 26 March, 1649. He 
married (1st) Mary, daughter of John Forth, Esq., of Great Stanbridge, Essex, 
who died 1615; (2d) Thomasine, daughter of Wm. Clopton, who died 1616; 
(3d) Margaret, daughter of Sir John Tindale, Kt., who died 1647. 

4. John Winthrop, F. R. S., Governor of Connecticut, was born in Groton, 12 
Feb. 1606. His first wife was Martha Fones ; his second, Elizabeth Read, 
daughter of a widow whom the famous Hugh Peters afterwards married. He 
died April 5, 1676. 

5. Fitz John Winthrop, F. R. S., Governor of Connecticut, was born in Ips- 
wich, Mass., 14 March, 1639; died in Boston, 17 Nov. 1717. 5. Wait Still 
Winthrop (brother of Fitz John) was Chief Justice of Massachusetts ; he died in 
Boston about 1688. 

6. John Winthrop, F. R. S. (son of Wait Still,) born in New London, 26 Aug. 
1681 ; married Anna, daughter of Gov. Joseph Dudley. He died 1 Aug. 1747. 

7. John Still Winthrop, born 15 Jan. 1720; died 6 June 1776. His wife 
was Jane, daughter of Francis Borland, of Boston, and granddaughter of the 



CHARACTER OF WINTHROP. 297 

only the eldest son, but he was also the darling and idol of 
his father's heart, who educated him at Trinity College, 
Dublin. I am able to find in the annals of that day, nothing 
more lovely and confiding than the letters written by this 
excellent father to a son of such promise that every eye 
turned towards him with interest while the youth was still 
growing in stature and wisdom, and while his character was 
blossoming with sentiments that afterwards ripened into 
great thoughts and noble actions. Even if the elder Win- 
throp had not been a historical character, we should seem to 
know him as a kindly neighbor and friend from the charming 
tone of these letters. Other fathers, in writing to their ab- 
sent sons, usually pen their doubts and fears, and qualify 
their expressions of love with those of parental solicitude. 
Most fathers dictate to their sons what course to pursue 
when absent from home, and assume a demeanor and show 
of patriarchal authority. But Winthrop takes a diflerent 
course. He opens his whole heart to the boy as a lover 
would whisper his passion in the ear of his betrothed. He 
keeps nothing from his favorite. His large family, his many 
expenses, the engrossing cares of business, the anxieties that 
his other children give him, are all told with the charming 
simplicity of affection. At the same time he bids him spend 
freely whatever money his circumstances appear to indicate 
as requisite to maintain the position of a gentleman's son at 
a university. 

" I purposed," he says in one of these letters, " to send you 
by this bearer such books as you wrote for ; only Aristotle 
I can not, because your uncle Fones is not at London to 
buy it, and I know not whether you would have Latin or 
Greek. I purpose also to send you cloth for a gown and 

Hon. T. Lindall, of Salem, Judge of the Superior Court and Speaker of the Pro- 
vincial Legislature. 

8. Thomas Lindall Winthrop, LL.D., Lieut. Governor of Massachusetts, was 
born 6 March 1760 ; died 22 Feb. 1841. 

9. Robert Charles Winthrop, LL.D., of Boston, Speaker of the United States 
House of Representatives ; United States Senator. 



298 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

suit ; but for a study gown, you had best buy some coarse 
Irish cloth.* 

It may be interesting to the reader to know more about 
the history of the suit of clothes and the gown, that were 
both in danger of being outgrown by this college youth, who, 
as we shall see by the following extract from another com- 
munication, had not yet attained his full stature : " You may 
line your gown with some warm baize, and wear it out, for 
else you will soon outgroiv it, and if you be not already in a 
frieze jerkin I wish you to get one speedily ; and howsoever 
you clothe yourself when you sti7', be sure you keep warm 
when you study or sleep. I send you no money, because you 
may have of your uncle what you need."f 

It does not require a very lively imagination in any one 
who is familiar with the Winthrop portrait, to figure to him- 
self the appearance of the future governor of Connecticut 
poring over the pages of Aristotle of a winter evening, pro- 
tected from the cold by that warm baize lining and frieze 
jerkin. The youth may be fairly presumed to have followed 
his father's advice and worn out the gown at the elbows long 
before he outgrew it. The appellations, "loving son," "son 
John," " well beloved," and other expressions of endearment, 
abound in all these communications, not only during the 
young man's stay at the university, but down to the time 
when death separated them. 

After he had finished his academical course with great 
honor, in order that nothing might be wanting to develop 
his faculties, young Winthrop was sent, (a rare accomplish- 
ment in those days,) to make the tour of Europe. He 
accordingly traveled in France, Germany, Holland, Italy and 
Turkey. Thus, before he had entered upon his twenty-fifth 
year, he was a thorough scholar, was possessed of liberal 

* Savage's W^inthrop, i. 404. In the Appendix to the first volume of Win- 
throp's History, Mr. Savage has given sixty-four family letters, nearly all of 
which were written by the elder John Winthrop to his son. 

t lb., i. 405. 



CHARACTER OF WINTHROP, 299 

views, a deep knowledge of the world in its varied aspects, 
and the most elegant and courtly manners. 

In 1631 he sailed with his father for America,* and was 
chosen a magistrate of Massachusetts. He soon after went 
back to England, but in 1635 returned, as I have informed 
the reader in another place, with a commission to build a fort 
at the mouth of the Connecticut river, and to hold the place 
of governor of that river. In 1651, he was chosen into the 
magistracy of Connecticut. In 1657, he was elected gover- 
nor of the colony, and in 1658, he was made deputy gover- 
nor ; in 1659 he was again placed at the head of the magis- 
tracy.! 

The rest of his history I have already attempted to set 
forth, and can add little to what I have said. His life and 
character may be gathered from his state papers, his letters, 
his counsels and his deeds. He was one of the first chemists 
of his age, was an excellent physician, and as a diplomatist 
and statesman he had no superior in his day. 

Though his bones repose in a sister colony, whither he had 
gone in the service of Connecticut, yet his heart was hers to 
its last beat. It must have taken away something from the 
bitterness of death, that though away from home he was not 
among strangers, and that friendly hands would place his 
remains in the same tomb with those of his honored father, 
to await the signal that they both believed would burst the 
bonds of the sepulchre, and leave them free in the enjoyment 
of a new intercourse, more spiritual, more pure and delightful 
than the old. 

* See Mather's Magnalia, b. ii. 143 ; Trumbull, i. 345. 
t Colonial Records. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



ADMINISTRATION OF ANDROSS. 

At the close of Philip's War, Connecticut found herself 
deeply involved in debt. She had indeed kept that dan- 
gerous enemy from her borders, and her women and children 
had been spared the horrors of captivity, and had been kept 
safe from the pitiless edge of the scalping-knife. Still, she 
had suffered much. Her noble corps of volunteers had been 
kept in constant service. A large proportion of her brave 
men had been continually on duty at home, keeping watch 
and ward in their respective towns. They were obliged to 
build forts, to construct palisades about their settlements and 
around those houses that were selected on account of their 
position or strength, as fit places of refuge for the infirm and 
the old, helpless infancy and defenseless womanhood. 

But heavy as was her expenditure, the republic lost no 
time in regaining her former independent position. For 
three years after the war began, her freeholders submitted to 
the tedious tax of eleven pence on the pound upon the grand 
list, besides paying all the customary town and parish rates. 
To discharge her public debt, an additional tax of eight pence 
upon the pound was now fixed for two years.* The colony, 
it was hoped, might repose upon her laurels now that Philip 
was dead and the Narragansetts were crushed to the earth. 

The General Assembly determined that Connecticut 
should be remunerated for her services in the late war, by 
taking possession of that large tract of country whence the 
brave Denison and his volunteers had driven the subjects of 
Nanuntenoo — a country that Rhode Island had failed to de- 
fend. The Assembly set at defiance the decision of Nichols 

* Colonial Records. 



BOUNDARY QUESTION'S. 301 

and his fellow commissioners, making the Narragansett 
country and Rhode Island a king's province, as it was 
averred that these gentlemen were not clothed with power 
to make such new colonies. The agreement made between 
Mr. Winthrop and Mr. Clark they also repudiated, as it was 
subsequent to the charter and completed without the author- 
ity of the colony delegated to Winthrop. Besides, it was 
claimed that the charter of Rhode Island recognized but one 
article of that agreement, and that all the other parts of it 
had always been disregarded by the inhabitants of Rhode 
Island. Many instances were speciously given, wherein it 
was alleged that they had invaded the property of the settlers 
named in those articles, driven off their cattle, burned their 
fences, and pulled down their houses.* That Connecticut 
behaved in this matter after the custom that governs power- 
ful states in their relations with weaker ones, I have good 
cause to believe. Why should she be expected to form an 
exception to a rule that has never been violated perhaps 
since the foundation of civil politics in the world ? 

Edward Hutchinson, William Hudson, and others, claim- 
ants of a large tract of land in the Pequot and Narragansett 
country, also applied to the Assembly for relief against 
Rhode Island and found a ready response to their suit.f 

Were I to go fully into the details of all the bountlgary 
questions that from time to time employed our common- 
wealth the first hundred and fifty years, I should fill a volume 
that might better be devoted to documentary history. There 
was doubtless blame on both sides. 

Although Connecticut had made such efforts to prevent a 
false construction being put upon her conduct at court in 
the Andross affair, she did not succeed as she had hoped. 
Winthrop, the powerful mediator between her and the king, 
could no longer lend her his assistance in the hour of trial. 
The charmed ring had lost its spell, the eloquent voice could 
plead her cause no more. Enemies now began to thicken 
around her. Among others who had now learned her 
* Trumbull, i. 353. f See J. H. Trumbull's Colonial Records, ii. 553, 589, 590. 



302 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

friendless condition, was that common scourger of all the 
New England colonies, the dark, ill-boding man — Edward 
Randolph. 

In 1676, he arrived in Boston and commenced a series of 
vexations and interferences that only ended with his death. 
He was in the habit of returning to England every autumn, 
and there pouring into the royal ear the poisonous slanders 
that he had so industriously distilled during the summer. In 
the spring he would return and pass the time in fomenting 
dissensions among the people, and exercising over them the 
tyranny that was so natural to him. His pastime was the 
lively one of writing letters to the king's ministers and favor- 
ites, complaining of the opposition that he found in New 
England to the trade and navigation laws. This ambitious 
man was possessed of no ordinary abilities, and was stimu- 
lated to action by an intense desire of self-aggrandizement that 
would never allow him to rest until he should, if possible, have 
built for himself a monument upon the ruins of the colonies.* 

On account of the gloomy prospects of the colonies, the 
Congress recommended a general fast, that the people might 
humble themselves with prayer. In conformity with this 
request, Connecticut appointed the third Tuesday of No- 
vember 1678, for a day of humiliation. 

In May 1679, the General Assembly, with a view to pre- 
vent the people of Rhode Island, and others, from taking pos- 
session of lands in Narragansett, enacted that none of the 
conquered lands should be taken up or laid out into farms 
without special orders from the Assembly. 

This question of jurisdiction began now to assume a 
serious aspect. In September 1679, Governor Cranston, of 
\Rhode Island, held a court in Narragansett. The matter 
kept growing worse, until, on the 7th of April 1683, the king 
granted a commission to Edward Cranfield, Esq., lieutenant 
governor of New Hampshire, William Stoughton, Joseph 
Dudley, Edward Randolph, Samuel Shrimpton, John Fitz 

* In a representation of his services to the committee of council, he boasts of 
having made eight voyages to New England in nine years. 



[1683.] THE HAMILTON CLAIM. 303 

Winthrop, Edward Palmes, Nathaniel Saltonstall, and John 
Pyncheon, jr., Esquires, or any three of them, of whom Cran- 
field or Randolph should constitute one, to examine into the 
claims as well of the crown as of all other persons and cor- 
porations, to the jurisdiction and title of a certain tract of 
land within his majesty's dominion of New England, called 
the king's province or Narragansett country.* 

On the 22d of August of the same year, the commissioners 
met at the house of Richard Smith in the disputed territory. 
They cited all parties interested in the subject-matter of 
their commission to appear before them with their charters, 
deeds, and other exhibits, under which they pretended to 
have derived a title. These gentlemen, after a full hearing 
of the evidence, adjourned to Boston, where they made a 
report to the king, declaring that the jurisdiction of the 
country was in the colony of Connecticut. f The joy that 
attended this victory gained by Connecticut over the king 
and the colony of Rhode Island, was qualified by the appear- 
ance of another enemy, more formidable because more 
malicious. 

On the 30th of June 1683, Edward Randolph had received 
a power of attorney from William and Anne, duke and 
duchess of Hamilton, and James, earl of Aran, their son, and 
grandson of James, marquis of Hamilton, to sue and receive 
their right of interest in lands, islands, houses, and tenements 
in New England. This representative of his betters, in the 
discharge of his duties under the power, hastened to appear 
before the commissioners at Boston, and in the name of his 
principals claimed title to the Narragansett country by a 
deed that bore date 1635. These new parties of course had 
a right to a full hearing, and had one at great length. Con- 
necticut made an admirable defense, and one that was truly 
unanswerable. So it was afterwards found to be when in- 
vestigated by the learned Trevor and that unrivalled author- 
ity. Sir Francis Pemberton. " Marquis Hamilton," says Sir 

* Trumbull, i. 358. 

t This report may be found in full in Trumbull, i. 359, 360. 



304: HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Francis in his able opinion, " nor his heirs, or any deriving 
from him, have ever had possession or laid out any thing 
upon the premises, nor made any claim in said country, until 
the year 1683, which was about forty-eight years after said 
grant." Mr. Trevor advised that the grant to Rhode 
Island was not valid in law, being subsequent to the grant to 
Connecticut. 

The colony meanwhile received letters from the king, 
giving information of a conspiracy against himself and his 
brother, the duke of York. The General Assembly replied 
in a very sensible and respectful manner, that they were 
much shocked at the tidings, and that for themselves " they 
prayed for kings and all men, and especially for his majesty 
and all in authority under him; that they feared God and 
honored the king."* 

New complaints were now framed against the colonies, a 
share of which fell to Connecticut. It was reported and 
believed in England that the colonies favored piracy and 
harbored pirates, and in support of this charge it was averred 
that no laws had been passed in New England against that 
crime. A letter was written by th© king's order to the gov- 
ernor and company, demanding that a law should be passed 
for the suppression of that offense, so much abhorred by all 
good men, and so directly in violation of the law of nations 
as well as of the law of England. On the 5th of July 1684, 
therefore, a special assembly was called and a law passed 
against piracy, a copy whereof was forthwith sent to the 
king's secretary of state. 

As early as 1673, a number of the citizens of Farmington 
had presented their petition to the General Assembly, pray- 
ing that a committee might be appointed to view Mattatuck, 
and make their report, whether the lands there were suffi- 
ciently fertile to maintain a plantation. The committee was 
sent out, and in May 1674 reported to the Assembly that 
Mattatuck could accommodate thirty families. f The Gen- 
eral Assembly then appointed a second committee to super- 

* Colonial Records. + Colonial Records. 



[1686.] WATERBURY. ■ 305 

intend the proposed settlement. The number of planters 
who owned shares in the Mattatuck lands at the commence- 
ment of this enterprise was less than thirty. In May 1686, 
they were invested with corporate privileges, and exchanged 
the aboriginal name for that of Waterhury. Its beginnings 
were not prosperous, nor were its prospects at all flattering 
for many years. Although the site of the town was not un- 
pleasant, and the meadows that bordered the river were very 
inviting, yet the people were long pursued by a variety of 
calamities. 

In February 1691, the town was almost destroyed by an 
inundation. The rain fell in such abundance that the Nau- 
gatuck rose to a great height, and swept through the valley 
with such terrible violence, that the soil of the meadows was 
torn and washed down with the current, and the whole sur- 
face of the fields was left rough and disfigured with loose 
stones. Many of the people, shocked at the desolation 
wrought by the flood, abjured their homes and fled from the 
town forever. In the fall of 1712, the place was almost 
depopulated by an epidemic, that left scarcely enough living 
inhabitants to attend upon the sick and minister the last rites 
to the dead.* 

Indeed, for many years, and until the commencement of 
the present century, Waterbury was not thought to be a town 
that could offer any very strong inducements to those who 
were seeking a favorable situation for a permanent abode. 

But a change has come over the aspect of the place, that 
reminds us of the transformations that we find in tales of 
Arabian enchantment. The river, once so destructive to 
those who dwelt upon its banks, though sometimes even 
now in its more gamesome moods it loses its self-control and 
deluges the lands and houses of the inhabitants, is no longer 
the instrument of destruction to them, but is, notwithstand- 
ing its lively looks and the racy joyousness of its motions, 
their common drudge and plodding laborer in all depart- 
ments of their manifold enterprises. The diflference between 

* Trumbull, i. 367. 
20 



306 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

the twenty-eight famihes at Mattatuck, flying from the 
meager settlement where poverty, inundation and disease 
threatened their extermination, and the young city of Water- 
bury, with its stone church towers, its rich mansions, its 
manufactories and its population that is now numbered by 
thousands, affords to a reflective mind a practical illustration 
scarcely equalled even upon the prairies of the west, of the 
self- rene win o; vigor and boundless exuberance of health that 
characterizes the blood of the old pioneers of New England. 
The Naugatuck valley, but a few years ago unknown, almost 
unexplored even by the citizens of Hartford and New Haven, 
is now one of the most interesting and busy thoroughfares in 
New England. How lonar it will be before the traveler who 
takes his seat in the train at Derby, will be able lo journey 
its whole length to Winsted, without once losing sight of brick 
stores and stone manufactories standing by the stream, and 
graceful white houses perched upon the hill-sides on either 
hand, let the prophetic decide. I have only to do with the 
past. 

The insertion of the settlement of Waterbury in this place, 
according to its chronological order, will not call for an excuse. 
Let us now return to the genera] history of that period. 

During the latter years of the reign of Charles II. the king 
had become so reckless of his pledges and his faith, that he 
did not scruple to set the dangerous example of violating the 
charters that had been granted by the crown. Owing to the 
friendship that the king entertained for Winthrop, we have 
seen that Connecticut was favored by him to a degree even 
, after the death of that great man. But no sooner had Charles 
aemised and the sceptre passed into the hands of his bigoted 
brother, King James IL, than Connecticut was called upon 
to contend against her sovereign for liberties that had been 
affirmed to her by the most solemn muniments known to the 
^ law of England. 

The accession of James II. took place on the 6th day of 
February 1685, and such was his haste to violate the honor 
of the crown, that early in the summer of 1685 a quo 



[1686.] QUO WARRANTOS. 307 

warranto was issued against the governor and company of 
Connecticut, citing them to appear before the king, within 
eight days of St. Martin's, to show by what right and tenor 
they exercised certain powers and privileges.* 

On the 6th of July 1686, the governor of Connecticut 
called a special assembly to take measures to procure the 
chartered rights of the colony. The assembly that day 
addressed a letter to his majesty, praying him, " to pardon 
their faults in government and continue them a distinct 
colony." The burden of their prayer was, that he would 
" recall the writ of quo warranto.'"! Never was a supplica- 
tion more utterly disregarded. 

On the 21st of the same month, came that old and dreaded 
enemy of the colonies, Edward Randolph, and brought with 
him two writs of quo warranto, which he delivered to Gov- 
ernor Treat. The day of appearance named in them was 
passed, long before the writs were served. 

On receiving these formidable documents, accompanied 
with a letter from Richard Normansel, one of the sheriffs 
of London, Governor Treat called another special assembly, 
that met on the 28th of July. Mr. Whiting was immediately 
appointed the agent of the colony to repair to England and 
present its petition before the king. He was instructed to 
inform his majest}^ at what a late day the writs had arrived, 
so that it was impossible that the colony should have had a 
hearing at the time and place named in them. He was fur- 
ther directed to represent how great injuries the colony 
would sustain by a loss of its charter, and more particularly 
by a dismemberment of its territory. Should the agent fail 
in this matter, he was ordered to implore the king to con- 
tinue inviolate the enjoyment of property among them, and 
above all that he would preserve to them their religious 
privileges. J 

* Chalmers, b. i. 295; Trumbull, i. 3G7. The articles of high misdemeanor, 
which were exhibited against the governor and company, are in Chalmers, b. i. 
301 — 404. They are signed by Edmund Randolph. 

t Colony Records, (MS) vol. iii. 182, 183. i Colony Records. 



808 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

In this slate of uncertainty the affair rested, until, on the 
28th of December, another writ of quo warranto was served 
upon the governor and company of the colony. This writ 
bore date the 23d of October, and required the defendants to 
appear before the king " within eight days of the purification 
of the Blessed Virgin." The crown lawyer who drew it, 
must have laughed heartily at the most catholic and mystical 
return day mentioned in a citation wherein puritans were 
the parties summoned. It is not at all likely that they had 
informed themselves as to the time of that event, so interest- 
ing to King James, nor could they dream, even were the 
day of purification fairly known to them, on what one of 
those eight days the king would graciously attend upon 
them.* 

The scribe might as well have said, within eight days of 
the time when the king's soul shall have been released from 
purgatory. Of course, the day named was not known to 
the English law, and was, therefore, no day at all in legal 
contemplation. 

I have hitherto in this work, attempted to speak of all 
dignitaries with respect ; but this piece of royal jugglery, so 
unworthy of a man, not to say of a king, deserves all repro- 
bation, and has not even the convenient cloak of bigotry and 
superstition to hide its meanness. f It is a political trick 
that any one of the courtly Plantaganets or blunt Tudors 
would have been incapable of practicing, and one that the 
grandfather, father, and brother of King James, would have 
scorned to be thought guilty of. Long before his ignomin- 
ious reign, still marked in British history for its imbecility, 
its cruelty, its wanton violation of every principle of the 
constitution, and its disregard both of the forms and spirit of 
the law, a royal charter had been settled to be an irrevocable 
I thing so long as its terms were kept sacredly by the grantees ; 

^~* The parties summoned might also have asked with propriety whether 
"within eight days" before or after the event designated, was intended by his 
majesty. 

t See Wade, 251,252. 



OTHER CHARTERS REVOKED. 309 

and from immemorial time it had been the right of the sub- 
ject to be duly cited to appear, before any right could be 
taken from him. Before this unoffending colony was perfid- 
iously stabbed in the dark by the government, nearly fifty 
corporations in England had been robbed of their charters, 
through various pretexts, and so shallow and untenable that 
an honorable barrister might feel ashamed to stand up and 
show cause why they should not prevail. Even the city of 
London, herself a mighty empire, after going through the 
form of a trial, had lost her corporate privileges. The char- 
ter of Massachusetts had fallen a prey to the same rapacity, 
and that of Rhode Island, enjoyed for such a brief space of 
time, had been surrendered.* A general government had 
been appointed over all New England with the exception of 
Connecticut, and even from her, the Narragansett country, 
already declared to be hers by the commissioners named by 
King Charles II., had been recklessly taken away. This 
general government of New England was instituted under a 
commission granted during the first year of the new mon- 
arch's reign, and in it Joseph Dudjey was named president 
of the commissioners. President Dudley, in pursuance of 
his official duty, thereupon on the 28th of May 1686, had 
sent abroad a proclamation " discharging all the inhabitants 
of Rhode Island and Narragansetts from obedience either to 
Connecticut or Rhode Island, and prohibiting all government 
of either in the king's province."! 

The authorities of Connecticut could not fail to be alarmed 
at the threatening attitude of affairs. They had good cause 
to believe that judgment would be entered up against them, 
through default of appearance to defend, when no day had 
been named in the writ of quo warranto, yet they attempted 
to withstand the approaching shock, and still dared to hope 
that in the midst of the fallen columns of other temples, 
theirs might keep its place. Governor Treat, who has been 
much commended as a warrior by all our historical writers 

* Callender, 47 ; Adams ; Hutchinson. t Trumbull, i. 3G9. 



310 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

who have treated of the period in which he lived, and who 
was no less preeminent as a civilian, summoned up all his 
resolution to meet the emergencies of that critical time. 
On the 26th of January 1687, and after the reception of the 
third writ of quo warranto, he called a special assembly to 
decide on the steps to be taken by the colony. But the 
sad representatives of the people with trembling lips 
begged his excellency, with the advice of his council, to do 
for them at discretion what they could not do for themselves, 
and then returned to their homes. 

In March the court again met and declared by their vote 
that " they did not see sufficient reason to vary from the 
answer they gave Sir Edmund Andross to a motion of sur- 
render in January last." A letter was ordered to be sent 
to Andross in the name of the court.* 

In May they met regularly under the charter and made 
their annual choice of officers. Treat was again chosen 
governor. The General Assembly still refused to direct 
what measures should be adopted. Fear paralyzed all their 
energies, and despair began to cast a dark shadow over their 
deliberations. If they yielded up their corporate immunities, 
what would they get in place of them but a reckless provin- 
cial government, heavy taxes, unsettled tenures, broken obli- 
gations, religious persecutions ? For, what faith could they 
expect him to keep with them, who only two years before 
had written a letter to Governor Treatf filled with fatherly 
promises and tender recognition of their corporate existence ? 

* Colony Records. 

t This letter, addressed by James IT. to Governor Treat, bearing date the 26th 
of June 1685, is one of the most bland and comforting documents to be found on 
file in our Department of State. It contains also a most absolute admission of the 
validity of the charter, and of our uniform observance of its terms. In it the king 
is pleased to compliment his subjects in Connecticut in very gracious language, 
and he promises to extend to them " his royal care and protection in the preserva- 
tion of their rights, and in the defense and security of their persons and estates." 
The letter still remains, and taken with the other documentary evidences to be 
found in the same depository, it is a monument scarcely equalled in the annals of 
the world, of the perfidy and corruption of the false and grasping monarch who is 
to bo held responsible for its contents. 



[1686.] ANDEOSS GOVERNOR OF NEW ENGLAND. 811 

On the other hand, if they resisted, how easy would it be for 
the tyrant to declare them traitors ? With the deepest 
solicitude, the deputies again committed their distracted 
affairs to the governor and council, and adjourned. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Whiting, the agent, did what he could in 
England to prevent a consolidation of the New England 
colonies, and especially to keep the colony that he repre- 
sented from such a fate. But his efforts proved of no avail. 
Accordingly, on the 15th of January 1687, he wrote a letter 
to Governor Treat, informing him of the prospects that 
awaited Connecticut, and begging that the governor and 
council would send one or more of their own number, to 
defend the charter. 

On the 15th of June, a special assembly was called to take 
advice as to the propriety of adopting this course, and after 
due consultation it was thought best not to send any more 
agents in a matter where so skillful a diplomatist as Whi- 
ting had failed. He was desired to continue his services 
"both in appearing for us and in our behalf to make answer 
to what shall be objected against us, and generally to do 
whatever shall be needful to be done for us." The governor, 
deputy governor, and assistants, were directed to present the 
thanks of the Assembly to Mr. Whiting for his services.* 

President Dudley had already addressed a letter to the 
governor and council, advising them to resign the charter 
into the king's hands. Should they do so, he undertook to 
use his influence in behalf of the colony. They did not 
deem it advisable to comply with the request. Indeed, 
they had hardly time to do so before the old commission 
was broken up, and a new one granted, superseding Dud- 
ley and naming Sir Edmund Andross governor of New 
England. 

Sir Edmund arrived in Boston on the 19th of December 
1686,t and the next day he published his commission and 
took the government into his hands. Scarcely had he estab- 
lished himself, when he sent a letter to the governor and 
* Colony Records. f Wasbbuin's Judicial Hist. Mass., 94, 126. 



^/ 



312 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

company of Connecticut, acquainting them with his appoint- 
ment, and informing them that he was commissioned by the 
king to receive their charter if they would give it up to him. 
He begged them, as they would give him a favorable oppor- 
tunity to serve them, and as they loved and honored his 
majesty, not to keep it back any longer. 

As this communication did not bring forward the much 
desired paper. Sir Edmund soon after addressed another to 
Governor Treat, in which he said that he had just received 
tidings from England that judgment had been entered upon 
default in the writ of quo warranto brought against the col- 
ony, and that he should soon receive the king's commands 
respecting them. He earnestly urged the company to antici- 
pate any compulsory steps that might otherwise be taken, 
and to receive the gratitude and favor of their sovereign, by 
voluntarily yielding up what would else be plucked from 
them by force. 

When this last epistle was received, the Assembly was in 
session, and it was forthwith submitted to them, in connec- 
tion with another from Colonel Dungan of a like import. If 
caution is one trait of the people of Connecticut, the reader 
has by this time learned that the most cool and persistent 
courage is another that they possess in a high degree. With 
one voice, the Assembly decided to stand for their rights, 
and hold fast to the charter. Still, that caution might be 
duly mingled with courage, and that patience might have 
her perfect work upon them, they addressed a petition to the 
king, earnestly supplicating him to preserve those privileges 
that had been granted to them by his royal brother, and re- 
newed by the kind assurances in his own gracious letter to 
their governor. If this, the burden of their prayers, should 
be denied them, they beg that they may not be separated 
from their old friends in Massachusetts, and that they may 
be placed under the government of Sir Edmund Andross.* 

This alternative request, wrung as it was from the heart- 
agony of a suffering people, was artfully construed into a 

* Colony Records. 



[1G87.] GOVERNOR ANDROSS VISITS HARTFORD. 313 

voluntary resignation of their charter.* Thus was a sup- 
plication that had been obtained by fraud and lies, sought 
to be made available by a false construction too gross to 
deceive even the weakest mind. As well might a martyr's 
prayer for life uttered in the cold ears of his inquisitors, 
closing with the last request that, if he must die, his features 
may not be mutilated by the devilish enginery of torture, or 
his limbs be broken upon the wheel, be considered as fully 
granted, because touched with some sense of womanly re- 
morse, they had dexterously snatched the immortal jewel 
without shattering the perishable casket in which it had 
been imprisoned. 

Notwithstanding the earnest appeal made to the king, to 
do justice to her, the little colony still clung to the charter. 

In October, at the time prescribed by it, the General As- 
semblv convened as usual, and held its res:ular session. 

On Monday, the 31st of October 1687,t Sir Edmund An- 
dross, attended by several of the members of his council and 
other gentlemen, surrounded by a body guard of about sixty 
soldiers, entered Hartford with a view of taking possession 
of the instrument that all his efforts had failed to procure 
from the reluctant authorities. The General Assembly was 
in session when he arrived. He was received by the gover- 
nor and council, and by the other members of the Assembly, 
with all the outward marks of respect, but it was obvious 
that no cordial feeling of congratulation awaited him. An- 
dross entering the legislative hall in the presence of the 

* The author of " Will and Doom," (referring to the letter containing this 
petition of the Connecticut Assembly) says : " The letter being received at 
Whitehall, th,e king readily granted their request of being annexed to the Bay. 
pursues his quo warranto no further, but sends a commission to Sir Edmund 
Andross, Kt., (then governor of Massachusetts,) to take on him the government 
of Connecticut." The same writer subsequently says : " The charter govern- 
ment of Connecticut was laid aside by their own act, and the king's government 
was erected by his excellency without fraud or force, but with the free consent of 
all parties concerned." He could hardly have been acquainted with the prin- 
ciples of the English law, or he would have remembered that " duress per minas 
voids all contracts." 

t Bulkley's " Will and Doom." 



814 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Assembly, publicly demanded the charter, and declared the 
government that was then acting under it to be dissolved. 
The Assembly, confronted as they were by this royal emis- 
sary with an armed force at his heels, neither complied with 
his demand to bring forth the charter, nor did they evince, 
by resolve or any other expression of their legislative will, a 
determination to abandon any right or immunity that they 
had acquired and held under it. Tradition, never contro- 
verted by a single respectable authority, tells us that Gover- 
nor Treat remonstrated against this arbitrary proceeding, 
with the manliness and strong sense that characterized his 
whole life ; that he gave a brief narrative of the early settle- 
ment of the colony, the hardships and dangers that beset the 
people for so many years ; the Indian wars with their 
long train of evils. He pictured, as none but a participant in 
that sad drama could have done, the savages, the fire, slaugh- 
ter, and captivity, that had made Philip's war " so memorable 
and so horrible ;" and after representing in vivid colors the 
part that he had himself played in that and other kindred 
struggles, he said it was like giving up his life, now to give 
up the patent and privileges so dearly bought and so long 
enjoyed.* 

Whether Sir Edmund condescended to reply to this touch- 
ing appeal, we are not informed, but in some way the delib- 
erations were protracted until evening, perhaps by the choice 
of Sir Edmund himself, certainly by his acquiescence, who 
may have seen in the lowering brows of the citizens as they 
thronged the hall and glanced silently upon him, a spirit that 
suggested to his mind the prudence of obtaining if he could 
a quiet submission. I have every cause to think from the 
previous and subsequent history of the colony, that Governor 
Treat, who could have had little hope of making any impres- 
sion upon the heart of Andross by this oration, prolonged the 
debate as much as possible in pursuance of a plan of opera- 
tions that had been before agreed upon, in which others less 
liable to the charge of treason were to be the principal 

* Trumbull, i. 371. 



[1787.] THE CHARTER DISAPPEARS. 315 

actors. Be this as it might, the shades of evening gathered 
around the legislative chamber, and still the charter had not 
made its appearance. Lighted candles were brought in, and 
the eager crowd pressed more and more densely into the 
room, to witness the last pang of the expiring colony. We 
may suppose that by this time Sir Edmund had lost all 
patience, and, as he saw no such manifestations of violence 
and brutality as evince the madness of an English mob, that 
he would be still more peremptory in his demands. At last 
the governor and assistants appear to yield. The charter is 
brought in and laid upon the table in the midst of the Assem- 
bly.* It was then that the first lesson vv'as given to a crea- 
ture of the British crown, teaching him how wide is the dif- 
ference between an English populace and a body of Ameri- 
can freemen. In an instant, the lights were extinguished, 
and the room was wrapped in total darkness. Still, not a 
word was spoken, not a threat was breathed. The silence 
that pervaded the place was as profound as the darkness. 

The candles were quietly re-lighted, but, strange to tell, the 
charter had disappeared. Sir Edmund, and we may well 
believe, the people's governor too, looked carefully in every 
nook and corner where it might be thought to be hid, but 
their search was in vain. All efforts to find the perpetrator 
of this rash and sudden act, proved equally fruitless. 

" Had he melted in earth or vanished in air ?" 

Thus robbed of the prize while it seemed already in his 
grasp, Sir Edmund Andross smothered his resentment as 
well as he could, and proceeded to assume the reins of au- 
thority. In the following pompous words, he announced 
that the government of the people was at an end : 

* The following entry in the Colonial Records doubtless has reference to this 
scene : " Sundry of the court desiring that the patent or charter might be brought 
into the court, the secretary sent for it and informed the governor and court that 
he had the charter, and showed it to the court, and the governor bid him put it in 
the box again and lay it on the table, and leave the key in the box, which he did 
forthwith." 



316 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

"At a General Court at Hartford, October 31st, 1687, his 
excellency, Sir 'Edmund Andross, knight, and captain-gen- 
eral and governor of his majesty's territories and dominions 
in New England, by order of his majesty James the Second, 
King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, the 31st of 
October, 1687, took into his hands the government of the 
colony of Connecticut, it being by his majesty annexed to 
Massachusetts, and other colonies under his excellency's 
government. 

FINIS. * 

The new governor now proceeded to appoint officers 
throughout the colony. His council consisted of about fifty 
persons. Of these. Governor Treat, John Fitz Winthrop, 
Wait Winthrop, and John Allen, were from Connecticut. 
Sir Edmund, hke his master, began his administration with 

* Bulkley, in his " Will and Doom," gives a somewhat detailed account of the 
way in which Sir Edmund assumed the government, and of the humble manner in 
which Governor Treat made his resignation to his successor. It may be inter- 
esting to the reader, and I therefore subjoin it, in that quaint author's own 
language : 

" Upon this notice, the governor summons the General Court to meet at Hart- 
ford about the same time, who accordingly attended (ready to receive his excel- 
lency when he came,) and held a court, and some say also voted a submission to 
him, though of this we are not yet well assured, and possibly they made no record 
of it. 

"On Monday, October 31, 1687, Sir Edmund Andross, (with divers of the 
members of his council and other gentlemen attending him, and with his guards,) 
came to Hartford, where he was received with all respect and welcome congratula- 
tion that Connecticut was capable of The troops of horse of that county conducted 
hun honorably from the ferry through Waterfield, up to Hartford, where the 
trained bands of divers towns, (who had waited there some part of the week 
before, expecting his coming then, now again being commanded by their leaders,) 
united to pay him their respects at his coming. 

" Being arrived at Hartford, he is greeted and caressed by the governor and 
assistants, (whose part it was, being the heads of the people, to be most active in 
what was now to be done,) and some say, though I will not confidently assert it, that 
the governor and one of the assistants did declare to him the vote of the General 
Court for their submission to him. 

" However, after some treaty between his excellency and them, that evening, 
he was the next morning waited on and conducted by the governor, deputy 
governor, assistants and deputies, to the court chamber, and by the governor him- 



[1687.] TYKANNY OF ANDKOSS. 317 

many professions of tender regard for the people. He bade 
his magistrates dispense justice with an even hand, and as 
nearly as might be in consonance with the established laws 
and usages of the colony. But these instructions were merely 
the thin disguise of his ultimate designs to plunder and op- 
press the people, or else, like many a greater man, he soon 
became intoxicated by too copious draughts from the exhil- 
arating cup of power, and was led into excesses that were 
foreign from his original intentions. Doubtless the example 
of a bad king, whose favor he was too anxious to win, goaded 
him on to acts of blindness and lawlessness that had before 
that time known no precedent in Connecticut. 

One of his first acts of tyranny, and the one of all others 
most likely to awaken the indignation of a people nurtured 
under the auspices of the constitution of 1639, was to put an 
end to the liberty of the press. He then proceeded to incur 
the displeasure of our youths and maidens by requiring all 
those parties who were about to form matrimonial alliances, 
first to give heavy bonds with sureties to the governor. In 
many cases, this was impossible, and amounted to an actual 
prohibition. He also took away from the clergy the power 
of joining persons in wedlock, and confined that privilege 
exclusively to magistrates. This was done to deprive the 
clergy of the perquisites resulting from the discharge of this 
delicate and sacred function.* 

He soon made a still more radical innovation. The min- 
isters, as the reader is now well aware, had been the patri- 

self directed to the governor's seat, and being there seated, (the late governor, 
assistants and deputies being present, and the chamber thronged as full of people 
as it was capable of,) his excellency declared that his majesty had, according to 
their desire, given him a commission to come and take on him the government 
of Connecticut — and caused his commission to be publicly read. 

"That being done, his excellency showed that it was his majesty's pleasure to 
make the late governor and Capt. John Allyn members of his council, and called 
upon them to take their oaths, which they did forthwith— and all this in that pub- 
lic and great assembly, neinine contradicente, only one man said that they first 
desired that they might continue as they were." 

* Trumbull, i. 372. 



318 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

archs of the colony, and its pioneers. They had acted the 
part of Moses and Aaron, and had led the people through the 
wilderness, and into the promised land. They had smitten 
the rock for the gushing forth of the waters ; they had de- 
stroyed the molten images and superintended the cutting 
down of the groves ; their prayers had aided in driving out 
the Canaanites, and in obedience to their voice the humble 
tabernacle had been set up in the midst of the tents of the 
people of God. Thus had the inhabitants of Connecticut been 
taught by their fathers to believe, and hence the reverence 
that followed the minister wherever he went was bred in 
the children that composed his flock. It was a reverence 
sometimes carried to an unwarrantable extent, amounting to 
a sacrifice of personal independence. But, unlike the rever- 
ence with which Sir Edmund bent the knee and bowed to 
the arbitrary will of the king, it was a sentiment that had in 
it little of the alloy of selfishness and none of the obsequi- 
ous cowardice of adulation. It was certainly honest and 
earnest, and pervaded the whole atmosphere of society. 
The people had brought with them from England the belief 
that it was necessary to the well-being of a state that the 
clergy — and they had one of their own — should be supported 
by law. They had, therefore, grown up under a mild and 
greatly modified tithing system. With a view of striking a 
blow most calculated to wound them, and with no regard, 
certainly, for the promotion of that religious liberty now 
so universal in this country, Sir Edmund repealed the laws 
requiring citizens to pay taxes for the support of the clergy. 
If they resisted his will, he declared that he would take 
their meeting-houses from them, and that he would punish 
any body who should give two-pence to a non-conformist 
minister. 

That this movement was imprudent and unstatesmanlike, 
to say nothing of its moral effect upon a people living in the 
seventeenth century, and brought up with the strictness 
peculiar to a Puritan education, I need not say to any reader 
who knows any thing of the philosophy of human govern- 



[1688.] LAND TITLES DECLARED VOID. 819 

ment. It would of itself have destroyed all confidence 
between the governor and the governed, had any existed, and 
would, in the course of a few years, have resulted in resist- 
ance and bloodshed throughout New England. 

Another measure adopted by him was, that all estates of 
deceased persons should be administered upon at Boston. The 
expenses of a journey to the capital city from the border 
towns of Connecticut were very burdensome, and in the 
case of widows and orphans, often amounted to an ab- 
solute denial of justice. The fees under his government 
were such as better befitted a mercantile city like Lon- 
don than the agricultural towns of Connecticut. It cost 
fifty shillings to prove a will, and other charges were in 
proportion. 

Taxation was another sore burden. Without any legisla- 
lative body whose sympathies were with the people, and who 
knew best what weight of oppression they would bear, with- 
out even consulting the majority of his counsel, Sir Edmund, 
with Randolph, and a few of his more congenial satellites, 
taxed the colonies at pleasure. 

Thus heavily did the time drag on with the citizens of 
Connecticut, who had so long been fondled in the lap of free- 
dom, that they felt more keenly than the other colonies the 
yoke of a provincial tyrant. 

In 1688 the province of New York was brought under the 

same dominion, and shared the same degradation. Indeed 
' ... 

I her people for several administrations were subjected to the 

tyranny of of the worst rulers. 

All the charters were now gone except that of Connecticut, 

and the government had ceased to be operated under it. Sir 

\Edmund, therefore, declared that the tenures by which the 

colonists held their lands were valueless. " An Indian deed," 

he would remark with a grim pleasantry befitting the simile, 

"an Indian deed is no better than the scratch of a hears paiv." 

He, therefore, compelled the planters to take out new patents 

for their estates, and some of them were obliged to pay a fee 

i to the authorities of fifty pounds apiece for these new titles 



320 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

to lands that they or their fathers had purchased of the In- 
dians, had reclaimed from the wilds of nature, had built houses 
upon and spent many times their value in improving, not to 
speak of a possession, adverse as against the whole world, of 
more than half a century's duration, and to say nothing of 
solemn charters, pledging the honor and faith of kings, of 
commissioners that ratified, and of congratulatory letters that 
had again and asain confirmed those charters. Some of the 
principal gentlemen refused to submit to this tyrannical swin- 
dle, and were served with "writs of intrusion," rightly 
enough named if applied to those who thus sought to eject 
from their patrimony the lords of the soil.* 

Not only were their estates taken from the people, but in 
Massachusetts the personal liberty of the citizens was tram- 
pled on with the same recklessness. All special town meet- 
ings were prohibited. The people were imprisoned at the 
will of the o-overnor and his minions, and the act of habeas 
corpus was as little regarded as in Turkey or Algiers. In- 
deed, Randolph, with the frankness of an unrestrained favorite, 
did not scruple to tell the persons with whom he corresponded 
in England, that Andross and his Council were as " arbitrary 
as the great Turk." In vain did petitions from his oppressed 
subjects in New England assail the ear of the king. Proud, 
bigoted, prejudiced against the applicants, and dividing his 
time between the cruelties of persecution and the seclusion 
of monastic life, he turned coldly away and left them to their 
fate. 

It is true that most of these severe shocks of power fell 
upon Massachusetts and Plymouth. Connecticut had not 
made herself obnoxious to the government, as her sister 
colonies had done, and besides she had the benefit of Gover- 
nor Treat's intercessions in her behalf, who, though he could 
not avert the rapacity of Andross and Randolph from the 
other colonies, was able to protect his own from many acts 

* This was not done uniformly, and happened less in Connecticut than in 
Massachusetts. Had it been generally insisted on, the people would have resisted 
it by force, or been brought to a state of bankruptcy by it. 



[1689.] CHARTER GOVERNMENT RESUMED. 321 

of oppression that would otherwise have driven her to despair. 
He was a member of Andross' Council, and through his in- 
strumentality, the other rulers with whom his fellow-citizens 
came more immediately in contact, were such men as would 
follow as nearly in the old track of administering justice, as they 
could be allowed to do. But, notwithstanding his exertions, 
the affairs of the colony grew worse and worse ; and when 
the summer of the year 1688 was brought to a close, Con- 
necticut was more desponding and distrustful than she had 
been at the commencement of the administration. A dead 
torpor reigned throughout the colony. 

But this darkness only heralded the dawn of a brighter day. 
The abdication of James put an end to the license of tyranny. 
On the 5th of November, William, Prince of Orange, landed 
in England and published his plan of conducting the affairs 
of his realm.* A copy of this manifesto soon arrived in 
Boston, and when its contents were made known to Andross, 
he caused the messenger who had brought it to be arrested 
and committed to jail "for bringing a false and traitorous 
libel into the country." The people bade the noble adven- 
turer God-speed in his undertaking, and on the l8th of April, 
1689, the popular indignation, so long repressed, broke forth 
in civil war. The people of Boston, and the towns adjoining, 
arose in a mass, seized Andross and the more odious members 
of his Council, and re-instated the old officers of the colony. 

On the 9th of May, Governor Treat, Deputy Governor 
Bishop, and the old magistrates under the Charter, resumed 
the government of Connecticut. The Assembly was con- 
vened, and before the close of the same month the glad 
tidings reached Connecticut that William and Mary, of blessed 
memory, were established upon the throne of the British em- 
pire. With hearts as glad as the young foliage upon the trees, 
and the smiles of the summer that was just opening, the 
General Assembly, specially called for that purpose, hailed 
the new king. With a truly epic magnificence, the glorious 

» Wade, 261. 
21 



322 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

little colony who alone had kept her charter, told King Wil- 
liam how the " Lord who sitteth King upon the floods, had 
separated his enemies from him as he divided the waters 
of Jordan before his chosen people." In words flattering and 
sweet, she also told him that it was " because the Lord loved 
his people, that he had exalted him to be king over them, to 
execute justice and judgment." Her General Assembly told 
him further the simple story of her wrongs, the oppression of 
the provincial tyrant who had wantonly usurped the govern- 
ment of a people that had never surrendered their patent, 
and how they had now taken the liberty to resume the reins of 
government until they could learn his majesty's good plea- 
sure. The officers who were in power at the date of the 
usurpation, were re-installed into their respective places.* 

But, perhaps some one will ask me if I have forgotten to 
tell what had become of the charter, and where it lay hid 
during the unhappy period of Andross' usurpation ? I have 
not indeed forgotten it ; neither have I forgotten the other 
legend that has come down to us unchanged in its fair pro- 
portions, or in its power over the public mind — a legend 
more sacred than history, more veritable than a record, for 
it is still represented by a living witness, whose biography, 
were it written, would be read with an interest that could 
invest the life of no merely human personage. 

I have already said that before Governor Wyllys came to 
America, he sent forward Gibbons, his steward, to prepare a 
place fit for his reception. We are told that while he was fell- 
ing the trees upon the hill where Wyllys afterwards lived, he 
was waited upon by a deputation of Indians from the South 

* Bulkley argues that the Charter Government was extinct^ because the people 
of Connecticut had " voluntarily omitted their annual election, the only means to 
continue their government, in 1688," and that, consequently, the resumption of 
the government was void, " there being no Governor or Deputy Governor to 
summon a Court of Election, according to the Charter." This would be sound 
reasoning but for two facts, viz., the failure to elect the annual officers in 1688, 
was not " voluntary," and therefore did not vitiate the Charter ; and as the 
Charter had never been surrendered, it was still in full force. 



THE CHARTER OAK. 823 

Meadow, who came up to remonstrate against the cutting 
down of a venerable oak that stood upon the side of the 
mound now consecrated to freedom. With the true elo- 
quence of nature, the brown sons of the forest pleaded in 
behalf of the immemorial tree. "It has been the guide of 
our ancestors for centuries," said they, " as to the time of 
planting our corn. When the leaves are of the size of a 
mouse's ears, then is the time to put the seed in the ground."* 
At their solicitation, the tree was permitted to stand, and 
continued to indicate the time when the earth was ready to 
receive the seed corn : a vast legendary tree, that must 
have begun to show signs of age a hundred years before that 
day, in the cavity at its base that was gradually enlarging, 
as one generation after another of red men passed from 
beneath its shadow. 

As soon as the lights had been extinguished in the legisla- 
tive chamber, in the presence of Andross, Captain Wadsworth 
seized the precious charter and bore it from the midst of the 
Assembly. Secretly he flew with it to the friendly tree, and 
deposited it in the hollow of its trunk. Thus the Charter of 
Charles II., in imitation of the exile of its author, took refuge 
in an oak ; and thus the king and the patent, have trans- 
mitted to the trees that respectively shadowed them, an 
immortal name. But how different the lesson taught by 
them ! The one saved from his enemies the representative 
of the principles of despotic power; the other gave an 
asylum to the record that bore witness to the rights of 
humanity to resist that power. 

The Charter Oak still lives. Old, perchance, as the hep- 
tarchy, this remarkable tree, fresh in its decay, still speaks 
of the centuries that are gone, still points to those that are to 
come — the king of trees, the tree of liberty. If it does not 

* The legend, as well as the beautiful words, I have from the pen of Historicus, 
a writer, who vmder several names can never hide himself from his readers. 
The article is to be found in the Supplement to the Connecticut Courant, under 
date September 13, 1845. 



324 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT, 

live five centuries more to frown on those sons of Connecticut 
who are ashamed to own their honorabje mother, its memory 
will be for ever green in the hearts of those who thank God 
that they were born in The Charter Oak State ! 



CHAPTER XV. 

FRONTENAC'S INVASION. ATTEMPT UPON QUEBEC. 

While such important changes were taking place in New 
England, New York also felt the shock of revolution. Jacob 
Leisler had taken the government of that province into his 
hands, and held the fort and city in behalf of King William. 
As the French and Indians were assuming a very threaten- 
ing attitude towards the English on the Northern frontiers, 
Leisler wrote to Connecticut, begging her to send troops to 
aid in the defence of his borders. On the 13th of June, 1689, 
the Assembly appointed Major Gold and Captain James 
Fitch to go to New York and confer with Leisler on that 
subject, and to decide in behalf of Connecticut, how many 
men she should furnish.* 

In accordance with the decision of this committee, the 
governor and council sent Captain Bull with a company to 
Albany, not only to defend that part of the country, but also 
to aid in bringing about a treaty with the Five Nations, that 
should secure their friendship for the English colonies. Con- 
necticut sent another party of soldiers to protect the fort and 
city of New York.f 

While the Indians on the northern frontier were busy in 
their preparations for war, the tribes within the limits of New 
England were not idle. They began to assemble in numbers, 
and again plundered the property of the English. This new 

* Colony Records; O'Callaghan's Doc. Hist. New York, ii. 15, 16, 17, 18; 
Trumbull, i. 378. 

t O'Callaghan, ii. 98. On the lOth of October the Assembly ordered the 
recall of the troops sent to relieve the fort in New York city, but they were 
directed to hold themselves in readiness to go to the reUef of said fort in case of an 
attack. 



326 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

excitement among the eastern tribes was thought to be owing 
to the arrogant behavior of Sir Edmund Andross towards 
them. To inquii-e into the causes of it, and if possible pre- 
vent bloodshed, a special assembly was called, and commis- 
sioners were appointed to meet those of the other colonies 
and consult with them as to the causes of the disturbance ; 
and, if it should appear that the Indians had been wronged, 
to see that justice was done them. If, on the other hand, it 
should be found true that the Indians were the aggressors, 
then the commissioners were ordered to pledge the colony 
for the furnishing her proper quota of men.* 

The revolution of 1688, the best landmark in British 
history, as it set the empire free from the chains of supersti- 
tion and tyranny, as might have been expected, brought along 
with it the indignation of France, and involved the two nations 
in war. In 1689, a large number of land forces was levied, 
and a fine fleet was prepared for the reduction of New York. 
The undertaking was foiled by the incursions of the Mo- 
hawks, who now kept Canada in a state of constant distress 
and fear. 

To inspire the French colonists with a new courage, Count 
Frontenac sent out several companies of French and Indians 
against the frontier settlements of New York and New 
England. As New York was the least able to defend herself, 
and the most exposed on account of her thin population and 
remote border towns, the principal part of this hostile force 
was directed against her. A detachment of between two 
hundred and three hundred Frenchmen and Indians, under 
the command of D'Aillebout, De Mantil and Le Moyn, was 
therefore dispatched from Montreal to lay waste the unpro- 
tected districts of New York. These forces were provided 
with food and clothing suitable for a winter campaign, and 
arrived at Schenectady, after a painful march of twenty-two 
days, on Saturday, the 8th of February, 1690. It was dead 
winter and they had suffered so much from fatigue, cold, and 
hunger, that they approached the neighborhood of this outpost 

* Colony Records. 



[1690.] MASSACRE AT SCHENECTADY. 327 

of civilization, with the anticipation that they should be 
obliged to surrender themselves prisoners of war to the 
people whom they had come to subdue. But the scouts who 
had preceded them, and who had spent some hours in the 
village without exciting any suspicions, returned to them 
with the intelligence that the inhabitants were not prepared 
for their reception, and that it would be easy to surprise the 
town.* 

Encouraged by the tidings, they resolved to make an 
attack. The ferocity of the French character was exhibited 
on this occasion, as it was afterwards in the conflicts that 
followed. They found the gates open and without guard. 
They returned to the place about eleven o'clock at night, and, 
dividing their forces into little parties, surrounded every house 
at once, while the inmates were asleep. They were aroused 
from their slumbers only to fall into the embraces of a still 
deeper repose. While yet their heads were upon their pillows, 
the awful work of destruction began. The very beds were 
streaming with blood, and mutilated bodies were scattered 
upon the floors of the houses. In a few minutes the whole 
village was in flames, and sixty of its inhabitants were slain. 
The barbarities practiced upon the dead are too sickening to 
be reported. That infants were torn from their mothers' 
arms, and cast as fuel into the blaze that gleamed from the 
half consumed dwelling, is not the less calculated to awaken 
our sympathy, when we reflect that they must have perished 
in the snow-storm that swept hurriedly by, as if to avoid the 
scene of murder and atrocity that outbraved the fierceness 
of the elements.! 

Twenty captives were secured and reserved for the grati- 
fication of savage vengeance, when it should again demand 
its customary food. The rest of the inhabitants of Schenec- 
tady fled in their night-clothes through that awful stoi^m. 
" Twenty -five of the poor wretches who thus sought to better 

* Brodhead; Triimbull ; Smith. * Trumbull; O'Callagban, ii. 71, 156. 



328 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

their condition, lost their hmbs through the sharpness of the 
frost."* 

In the massacre — I can not call it a battle — Captain Bull's 
Lieutenant, one of his sergeants, and three privates were 
killed, and five were taken prisoners.! The Connecticut 
troops had little opportunity for the display of their valor on 
this occasion, but they did all that brave men, under a brave 
leader, could do in their circumstances. 

As soon as the news of this midnight butchery had reached 
Albany the next morning, universal dismay and horror filled 
the hearts of the people. Some of them counseled that the 
place should be at once destroyed, and the whole country 
abandoned to the ravages of the enemy. So panic-stricken 
were the inhabitants, that they lost all discretion, and, disaf- 
fected as they were at the government of Leisler, they refused 
to keep watch and ward, or maintain any regular military 
discipline. This had been the case especially at Schenectady. 
Had they followed the advice of Bull, and held themselves in 
readiness for an attack, they might have successfully repelled 
it. They had been unable to believe that the enemy could 
march hundreds of miles in that forbidding season of the year, 
and steal upon them in the night. 

The destruction of Schenectady was only a part of the 
tragedy. On the 18th of March, another party of French 
and Indians made a sudden attack upon Salmon Falls, a 
settlement that had been made upon the bank of the stream 
that divides New Hampshire from Maine. At daybreak 
they entered the village, and in small parties, as they had 
done at Schenectady, began the massacre from several points 
at once. The people rallied and nobly defended themselves, 
until they were crushed by the superior force of their 
invaders. Thirty-six men were killed, and fifty-four women 
and children were taken captive. Of course, the dwellings 
were burned, and the whole place laid waste. J 

The more eastern colonies were alarmed at this near ap- 
proach of the enemy, and earnestly begged that Connecticut 
* Trumbull, i. 380. t Trumbull, i. 380. t Trumbull, i. 380, 381. 



[1690.] SETTLEMENT OF GLASTENBUEY. 329 

would send troops to protect their frontier. Massachusetts, 
especially, sent letters, asking for men to guard the upper 
towns upon the Connecticut river.* New York and Albany 
also asked the further aid of our colony, not only in the con- 
tinuance of Bull and his company among them, but they 
prayed that fresh soldiers might be sent to reinforce them.f 

It has been one of the attributes of Connecticut always to 
be true to her friends in the hour of peril, although in doing 
so she has more than once been obliged to overlook some 
painful negligences on their part. Consistent with herself, 
she now responded to the call of her neighbors, and with one 
voice her Assembly declared that the settlement of the 
French at Albany must be prevented at every risk. Two 
companies, each of one hundred men, were immediately sent 
to the relief of Albany, and at the same time other troops 
were dispatched for the relief of the Massachusetts settle- 
ments upon the Connecticut river. 

Nor did the Assembly fail to provide against any encroach- 
ments upon their own territory, but compelled all the towns 
to keep a constant watch within their limits. None of the 
inhabitants except assistants, ministers, and the aged and 
infirm, were exempt from this duty, and even they were 
obliged to employ substitutes to discharge it for them, pro- 
vided their pecuniary condition would admit of it. Thus 
every citizen in the colony was taught to spend his strength 
and wealth for the general good of the people. J 

Meanwhile the Assembly was not unmindful of the munici- 
pal wants of the republic. At the same session it was 
ordered that all of that part of Wethersfield lying east of the 
Connecticut river should be invested with the ordinary cor- 
porate privileges, and should be known and called by the 
name of Glastenbury.§ Thus was the oldest town in the 
colony, after so many moral and ecclesiastical divisions re- 
sulting in the birth of plantations near and remote, finally 
allowed to follow in its municipal regulations the great land- 

* Holmes' Annals, i. 431 ; Hutchinson t Trumbull; O'Callaghan. 
J Colonial Records, MS. § Colonial Records, MS. 



830 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

mark of the valley, and divide itself for the sake of conven- 
ience into two separate jurisdictions. 

I have spoken elsewhere of the beauty and fertility of the 
district comprising these two towns. Both of them had their 
birth in the midst of convulsions, threatened calamities and 
impending wars, and each has done its part towards the sup- 
port of the fame and honor of the State. 

On the 1st of May, the commissioners or Congress met at 
Rhode Island to consult upon the affairs of the colonies, and 
to decide what measures were to be adopted in order to defend 
the country against the French and Indians. It was finally 
resolved that to invade the enemy would be the best security 
against a further attack from them, and it was accordingly 
ordered that eight hundred and fifty men should be raised for 
the reduction of Canada. It was deemed advisable, too, in 
this state of affairs, to ask for the help of the mother country. 
Accordingly, an express was sent to England to inform the 
government of the condition of the colonies, and to implore 
that a fleet might be dispatched to engage the French by 
sea, while the colonies invaded them by land. England, 
however, was unable at that time, in her unsettled state, to 
render the provinces the assistance that she would gladly have 
done under other circumstances.* 

New England and New York, undaunted by this discour- 
aging intelligence, resolved to prosecute the enterprise alone. 
The plan of operations was of a bold and daring character. 
It was determined that about nine hundred Englishmen and 
more than half that number of Indians should march through 
the wilderness and make an attack upon Montreal, while' at 
the same time a fleet and army of about two thousand men 
were to sail around to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, pro- 
ceed up the river with all haste, and reduce Quebec. f 

Under the direction of Jacob Milborn, who had married a 
daughter of Leisler, and who was to act as commissary, it 
was expected that New York would supply the land army 
with provisions and canoes to enable it to cross the navigable 

* Hutchinson, i. 353; Holmes, i. 431. t Holmes, i. 432. 



[1390.] EXPEDITION AGAINST CANADA. 831 

waters that were interposed between the east country and 
Montreal. The five nations, too, were counted upon as safe 
alUes of the EngUsh, when it was remembered how remorse- 
lessly they had fought against the French. 

This army was placed under the command of Major-Gen- 
eral Fitz John Winthrop,* of Connecticut. As soon as he 
could get his forces in readiness, Winthrop set out for Can- 
ada, and arrived at the head of Wood Creek early in August. 
Instead of finding at the appointed rendezvous the warriors 
of the five nations assembled in readiness to carry on a war 
with the French, Winthrop saw to his surprize only about 
seventy Mohawks and Oneidas. He sent a courier to the 
other tribes, to know if they designed to join him. They 
replied, evasively, that they were not yet ready to go. 
This was only a polite way of informing the general that 
they did not mean to go at all, as the event proved. How- 
ever, he advanced about one hundred miles, until he came to 
the borders of the lake where he had expected to find canoes 
in readiness to give the army a safe passage. Here also he 
found that this indispensable requisite was not provided. 
The few canoes that he found there were totally inadequate 
to perform such a task.f He apphed to the Indians in this 
emergency, and besought them to build canoes enough to 
transport the whole army. They replied that the season for 
peeling the bark from the trees had already gone by, and that 
they could make no more canoes until the next spring. 
More timid, probably, than treacherous, they told General 
Winthrop, that in aiming a blow at such a strong place as Que- 
bec, he " looked too high," and begged him to depart from his 

* Fitz John Winthrop, son of Gov. John Winthrop, of Connecticut, be- 
came magistrate of Connecticut in 1689. In 1694 he was sent to England as 
agent of the colony, and discharged the duties of the appointment so satisfac- 
torily that the Legislature made him a present of £500. He was distinguished, 
like his father, for his knowledge of philosophy, his skill in politics, and his 
piety, and was honored by being elected a member of the Royal Society. In 
1698 he was elected governor of Connecticut, and held the office till his death, 
in 1707. 

+ See Secretary Allyn's letter to Lieut. Gov. Leisler in Doc. Hist. New 
Tork, vol. ii. p. 254 ; also Trumbull, Brodhead, and others. 



332 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

first design, and make an attack upon Chambly and the bor- 
der towns upon the hither bank of the St. Lawrence. Mil- 
born had also neglected to provide suitable provisions for the 
subsistence of the army, so that the troops were not only 
kept from crossing the river, but were now beginning to be 
threatened with famine. A council of war was called, and 
it was reluctantly decided that the army must retreat to 
Albany.* 

In the meantime, the fleet under command of Sir William 
Phipps, Governor of Massachusetts, having sailed from Nan- 
tasket, made haste to reach Quebec. It was made up of 
nearly forty vessels, the largest carrying forty-four guns 
and two hundred men. Owing, however, to the many delays 
that he experienced, the number of his vessels, the adverse 
winds, and the strength of the river current, Sir William did 
not reach Quebec until the 5th of October.f 

On the 8th, he landed the troops and advanced upon the 
town ; and on the 9th, the ships were drawn up before it and 
opened a full fire upon it, but did little injury to a place so 
formidable from its natural position. J 

Frontenac, only a few days before, had returned to Que- 
bec, after learning that the land army which he had started 
in search of had retreated to Albany, and now set himself 
about the defense of the fortress with great ability. He 
opened such a deadly fire upon the English ships from his 
batteries that they were obliged to withdraw, and on the 11th 
of the month the troops were compelled again to embark. 
The terrible winds that beset the St. Lawrence in the 
autumn, and herald the approach of the dead season that 
binds the noblest of all our northern streams in fetters of ice, 
soon after scattered the vessels of the English fleet and 
warned Sir William to return home. Had he arrived at 

* Trumbull, i. 383 ; O'Callaghan, ii. 289. 

+ Hutchinson, i. 354 ; Holmes ; Trumbull. 

t Trumbull, i. 384. About this time, Leisler wrote to Governor Treat, " "We 
rejoice to understand the victorious success of Sir William Phipps at the east- 
ward ;" — alluding, possibly, to the capture of Port Royal a short time before. 



[1690.] LEISLER IMPRISONS GEN. WINTHROP. 333 

Quebec a week earlier than he did, he would have found the 
town, on account of the absence of Count Frontenac, com- 
pletely defenceless. But Frontenac having learned of the 
retreat of Winthrop, of whom he was in pursuit, hastened 
back to the fortress in time to save it. 

Had Milborn been faithful in the discharge of the duty- 
assigned him in the campaign, notwithstanding the timidity 
of the five nations and the late sailing of the fleet, it is prob- 
able that both branches of the expedition would have proved 
successful, and that the daring deeds that have since associa- 
ted the brightest names of British history with that of Que- 
bec, would never have been performed. 

That the campaign was a failure was not the fault of Con- 
necticut, whose valor has always been found equal to con- 
tend with every thing that dared to meet it, save the insuper- 
able obstacles of nature. 

The abuse heaped by Leisler, and by the miscreant Mil- 
born himself, upon Winthrop and the gentlemen of Albany 
who were of the council of war, was even more disgraceful 
than the negligence or cowardice of those maligners that 
had been the cause of the retreat of which they complained. 
Several of the principal gentlemen of Albany, among whom 
was Robert Livingston, Esq., were obliged to fly from New 
York and take refuge in Hartford, where they were protected 
from violence.* 

But Leisler's arrogance did not stop with persecuting the 
citizens of New York. After the main army had crossed 
the Hudson river, and while General Winthrop himself was 
on the west bank, and of course unprotected, Leisler brutally 
seized his person and attempted to go through the formalities 
of court-martialing the commander-in-chief of New Eng- 
land, who was in no way responsible to him, and who had 
been sent out more to protect the colony that he pretended 
to govern, than for any other cause. For several days Win- 
throp lay under arrest, and might have been murdered in 
cold blood had it not been for the timely interference of a 
* See O'Callaghan; Trumbull, i. 384. 



334 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

party of Mohawks, who, while the mockery of the trial was 
going on, crossed the river, brok*^ through the guards that 
surrounded the prisoner, and bore liim oft' in triumph.* 

When we consider the character of Winthrop and Living- 
ston, the defenseless condition of New York, and the efforts 
that Connecticut had made during the preceding winter to 
save the inhabitants of Schenectady and Albany from a 
doom that their recklessness seemed rather to covet than to 
shun, we are at a loss whether to admire more the ruffianly 
impudence or the heartless ingratitude of this transaction. 

While Winthrop was in close confinement, the authorities 
of Connecticut addressed a letter to Leisler, reminding him, 
though in a courteous way, of the same obligations that he 
must have forgotten. "A prison," they say, "is not a 
catholicon for all state maladies, though so much used by 
you." In another place they add, " If your adherence to 
Mr. Milborn (whose spirit we have sufficient testimony of,) 
and other emulators of the major's honor, be greater than to 
ourselves and the gentlemen of the bay, you may boast of 
the exchange by what profit you find."t 

The severity of this language appears, to us who know the 
history of New York for the century next succeeding the 
date of the letter, to be rather a prophetic warning than a 
threat. But I ought not to speak more at length upon this 
topic, lest it should be thought that I am unable to make a 
distinction between the profligacy of an administration and 
the character of the people who are oppressed by it. New 
York was not to blame for the madness of a tyrant. 

In order that no imputation might rest upon the character 
of Major-General Winthrop, the General Assembly, in Octo- 
ber following, went into a full investigation of his conduct. 
Evidence was heard not only from Albany, but from the 
New England officers who had been of the council of war; 
even the Indians who had participated in the affair, and who 
could testify as to the deficiency of canoes and provisions, 

* Trumbull, i. 384 ; see also Doc. Hist. New York, ii. 288, 289. 
t O'Callaghan, U. 289. 



[1692.] WINDHAM INCOEPORATED. 835 

were examined. Unanimously the Assembly resolved, 
" That the general's conduct in the expedition had been 
with good fidelity to his majesty's interest, and that his con- 
finement at Albany on the account thereof, demanded a 
timely vindication." * 

A committee of two magistratesf was also appointed in 
the name of the Assembly, to thank General Winthrop for 
his services, and to assure him of their readiness on all future 
occasions to avail themselves of his fidelity, valor, and 
prudence. J 

In May 1692, Windham was incorporated. The tract of 
land embraced in it was a very fine one, and had been de- 
vised by Joshua, son of Uncas and sachem of the Mohegans, 
to John Mason, James Fitch, and twelve others, many years 
before. § The territory thus given, comprised also the towns 
of Mansfield and Canterbury. Settlements were begun both 
at Windham and Mansfield in 1686. Windham has long 
been a town of historical importance, and was made a county 
seat in 1726. 

The Mohawks gave Count Frontenac as much trouble as 
the English, and proved very destructive enemies. After he 
was relieved from the embarrassments attending the English 
expedition against Canada, he determined to embrace the 
earliest opportunity to subdue these Indians. With this 
view he collected an army of about seven hundred French 
and Indians, and sent it forth, well provided for the hardships 

* Colonial Records, MS. 

t Captain James Fitch and Captain Daniel Wetherell. 

X Leisler wrote to Gov. Bradstreet (Sept. 15, 1690,) as follows : " I have used 
all arguments and means possible to reinforce for Canada ; but by Major Win- 
throp's treachery and cowardice, with the rest of his tools, hath rendered this 
work altogether impracticable." "Mr. Livingston, that betrayer of the province, 
and arch-confederate with yourselves, being willing to have exposed us to the 
remaining inhabitants ; however, God be thanked, we had those that made early 
provision against these devices." 

Hutchinson, the historian of Massachusetts, justly remarks: " Winthrop's 
character seems to have been made a sacrifice to Leisler's vanity and madness." 

§ Colonial Records, MS. 



836 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

of a winter campaign similar to the one that had resulted so 
disastrously at Schenectady. 

In the middle of January 1693, this army set out from 
Montreal for the Mohawk country. This warlike tribe 
occupied a number of fortified places called by our early 
records " castles." After suffering the extremest hardships, 
the invading army reached the first of these strongholds on 
the 6th of February. Here they took four or five men, and 
passed on to the second, where they met with the like suc- 
cess. Most of the Indians who ordinarily lived in it were 
absent. At the third, they were more fortunate. Here 
about forty warriors were assembled for a war-dance, pre- 
paratory to their departure upon an expedition against their 
enemies. They made a stout resistance, but were over- 
powered by numbers, after having killed thirty of the assail- 
ants. In this expedition the French took about three hun- 
dred of the five nations. Most of them were women and 
children. 

Colonel Schuyler, of Albany, at the head of about two 
hundred men, pursued the French army with such energy 
that they were glad to retreat. His forces were more than 
doubled within a few days after he took the field, by the 
allied Indians who flocked to his standard. About the 
middle of February, he came to the place where the French 
army was encamped. Three times they commenced a 
deadly attack upon him and were driven back. 

Schuyler was nearly destitute of provisions, and while he 
was waiting to be supplied with them, and with reinforce- 
ments from Albany, the enemy, taking advantage of a severe 
snow-storm, deserted their camp on the night of the 18th, 
and set off on their return for Canada. The next day. Cap- 
tain Simms, with eighty men and a good supply of provisions, 
joined Schuyler, who immediately resumed the pursuit. He 
pressed so close upon the French that he would have over- 
taken them had they not crossed the north branch of Hud- 
son's river upon a floating cake of ice, and thus effected their 



[1693.] GOV. FLETCHER ARRIVES IN NEW YORK. 337 

'1 escape. As it was, he took from them most of the captives 

f that had fallen into their hands.* 

, Letters soon arrived at Hartford, informing Governor 

!^ Treat of the state of the western forces, and urgently calling 
for two hundred soldiers to repair to Albany for the defense 
of the king's dominions. On the 21st of February, a special 
Assembly was called, and one hundred and fifty men, under 
command of Captain John Miles, were immediately placed 
at the governor's disposal, to send wherever he should deem 
it most for his majesty's interest to order them. The next 
day fifty of them were on the mai'ch for Albany. f 

The Assembly had scarcely adjourned, when new dis- 
patches arrived by express from Sir William Phipps, gover- 
nor of Massachusetts, asking for one hundred Englishmen 
and fifty Indians, to aid in protecting the eastern settlements 
both in Maine and Massachusetts. 

On the 6th of March, another special Assembly was called, 
and the necessities of Massachusetts were responded to by 
Connecticut, by raising a company of sixty Englishmen and 
forty Indians, who were placed under the command of Cap- 
tain William Whiting. The activity of our little colony, 
the alacrity with which her troops were sent to relieve the 
northern, eastern, and western borders of the neighboring 
colonies is in perfect keeping with her previous and subse- 
quent history. 

The halcyon days of our republic were destined again to 
be interrupted by the old question of jurisdiction. The 
anomalous authority of Leisler was now over in New York, J 
but his successor was no less likely to prove dangerous to 
the liberties of our people. On the 29th of August 1692, 
Colonel Benjamin Fletcher, the new governor, arrived from 
England with a commission that vested him with full powers 

* Trumbull. t Colony Records, MS. 

i Leisler and Milborn were executed in New York city for treason, May 1 6, 
1691; Leisler having previously been succeeded in the office of chief magistrate 
of New York by Col. Henry Sloughter, who died in July of the same year. Col. 
Fletcher succeeded Sloughter. 

22 



838 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

to command the whole miUtia of Connecticut and the neigh- 
boring provinces.* This commission of course took for 
granted the fact that the charter had been surrendered or 
forfeited, a proposition not Hkely to be received with much 
favor by Governor Treat and the other authorities, nor by the 
excited miUtia who had shared so many battles, and who had 
withstood the landing of Sir Edmund Andross at Saybrook ; 
and who already looked upon the Charter Oak with as much 
reverence as the ancient nations bordering upon the Medi- 
terranean entertained for the shrine of their favorite oracle. 
As the charter had never been given up, and as the command 
of the militia was given by it to the colony, the General As- 
sembly of course could do nothing less than resist this arbi- 
trary demand. However, out of respect to the people, the 
question was referred to the freemen, whether they would 
petition the king to preserve to them the control of the 
militia and their other chartered rights. 

At a special Assembly held on the 1st of September 1693, 
it was ordered that a petition should be presented to the 
throne in relation to this vital matter. This petition was to 
be presented by Maj. Gen. Fitz John Winthrop, who was 
made the agent of the colony for that purpose, and who was 
desired to repair as soon as possible to England, and use all 
his endeavors to keep the jurisdiction of the colonial govern- 
ment entire. t 

He was instructed to tell the king what hardships the 
people had encountered in the infancy of the colony, without 
the help of the mother country, and what dangers stiil sur- 
rounded them ; that if the military power should be then 
taken from them, placed under the command of strangers, 
and removed out of the limits of the colony to New York or 
Boston, the citizens of Connecticut would be left utterly 
defenseless, and their families and property would be at 
the mercy of their enemies ; that an absent stranger would 

* Trumbull, i. 390. 

+ Colonial Records, MS. Mr. Saltonstall was appointed to accompany Gov. 
Winthrop to England. 



[1093.] INSTKUCTIONS TO GEN. WINTHROP. 839 

be but a poor judge of the wants of people who lived so 
remote from him, whose sympathies were not with them, and 
who could be expected to know nothing of the internal 
wants of the country, whose institutions he was ignorant of, 
and whose society was of a different texture, and had different 
wants from that in which he had been reared ; that in case 
of insurrection the military power would thus be unavailable 
to restore the inhabitants to their wonted tranquillity ; that 
the settlements in the colony, unlike the villages and hamlets 
in England, were thinly inhabited and remote from each 
other, rendering it necessary to put upon the military list all 
males who had arrived at the age of sixteen years, and thus, 
were the militia withdrawn to some other colony, Connecti- 
cut would be left in the keeping of magistrates, professional 
gentlemen, infirm old men and helpless women, who might 
hope in vain to be able to guard a line of sea-coast and frontier 
wilderness formidable enough to the people in their best estate. 
Winthrop was further instructed to say to the king that the 
entire population of the colony was satisfied with the charter 
government, and prayed that it might be perpetuated. 

They bade him be sure to inform the king how unanimous 
the people were in their rejoicings over that happy event, 
the revolution of 1688, that had placed at the head of a new 
dynasty so gracious and acceptable a sovereign, and that if 
their prayer was granted, the militia should be, as it had 
before been, held at the service of the crown, to defend its 
honor, and the integrity of the king's empire as well in Mas- 
sachusetts and New York as in Connecticut. They further 
instructed him to say, that in defense of his majesty's inter- 
ests in the recent troubles in New York they had expended 
more than three thousand pounds and had freely shed their 
blood.* 

It was also left discretionary with the agent whether he 
should venture to depart from the tone •of supplication and 
assume an attitude of defense, setting up the charter and the 
rights vested by it in the authorities of the colony. 

» Colonial Records, MS. ; also Trumbull, i. 390, 392. 



340 HISTOEY OF CONNECTICUT. 

At the same time, an agent was sent to New York with a 
view of conciliating Governor Fletcher so far as could be 
done without compromising the claims set up under the 
charter. William Pitkin, Esq., was the agent designated for 
this mission. He was charged to pay his respects to Gover- 
nor Fletcher, and treat with him, if possible, in relation to the 
militia. Owing to the obstinacy of Fletcher, the embassy 
proved to be a failure. 

Finding all his efforts to get control over the militia un- 
availing, Governor Fletcher resolved to try coercive meas- 
ures. On the 26th of October, therefore, he came to Hart- 
ford while the Assembly were in session, and in the king's 
name demanded at their hands the surrender of the militia, 
as they would answer to his majesty for their conduct. He 
insisted on receiving from them a direct answer whether 
they would or would not comply with his orders. He sub- 
scribed himself as " Lieutenant to his majesty, and command- 
er-in-chief of the militia, and of all the forces by sea or land, 
and of all the forts and places of strength in the colony of 
Connecticut."* 

With the same pompous authority he commanded that 
the militia should be summoned under arms in order that he 
might beat up for volunteers. As if they designed to smooth 
his path to authority, the officers complied with the order, 
and called the train-bands together. Up to this point every- 
thing was encouraging. But here to his surprise the Assem- 
bly took a resolute stand. A very favorable time it was for 
the legislature to assume a bolder front, now that the guns of 
the train-bands were seen to glisten in front of the Assembly 
House. Governor Fletcher had invoked some troublesome 
spirits that he might not be able to quell now that they were 
before him. In vain did he argue and remonstrate with the 
Assembly, and in vain did he expatiate upon the ample 
powers given him fey his commission. The republican 
authorities either would not or could not comprehend how 
those powers were consistent with the charter. 

* Fletcher's Letter on file. 



[1693.] CAPTAIN WADSWORTH AND THE TRAIN-BANDS. 841 

In Fletcher's name, Colonel Bayard sent a letter into the 
Assembly, wherein he had carefully set down the object of 
his visit, and how remote it was from his intentions to inter- 
fere in any way with the civil rights of the colony. His 
excellency, said Bayard, will leave you as he found you, in 
the full enjoyment of your own. In Fletcher's name he also 
tendered to Governor Treat a commission authorizing him 
to command the militia. He insisted that he was contending 
for the recognition of the mere abstract right on the part of 
the king to control the military force, but that practically the 
colony would have the same authority as before. This 
" inherent, essential right" existing in his majesty, he said his 
excellency had come to see after, and that he would never 
set his foot out of Connecticut until it was acknowledged. 
He further said that he would issue his proclamation to the 
people, and then he should be able to distinguish the disloyal 
from those citizens who were peaceably disposed.* 

If he had dropped the letter into the Connecticut river, it 
would have produced as much effect upon the flow of the 
current as it did upon the Assembly. They reiterated that 
they could not give up the command of the militia, and Gov- 
ernor Treat with his usual firmness, said it was impossible for 
him to receive a commission from the hands of Governor 
Fletcher. This peremptory demand on the one hand and 
refusal on the other, brought matters at once to an open 
issue. 

As the train-bands were all ranged in due order, and as 
the senior officer, Captain Wadsworth, was walking up and 
down in front of the companies, Governor Fletcher advanced 
within hearing distance, and ordered his commission and 
instructions to be read. No sooner had Bayard begun to 
read, than Captain Wadsworth commanded that the drums 
should be beaten. This was done with such effect that the 
voice of the herald was entirely drowned in the din. " Si- 
lence !" said Gov. Fletcher, in a tone of offended authority. 
When the noise had subsided so that he could be heard, Bay- 
* Col. Bayard's Letter on file. 



842 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

ard again began to read the commission. "Drum, I say, 
drum !" said Captain Wadsworth, and in an instant the 
voice was again lost in the thunders of martial music. " Si- 
lence, silence !" shouted the provincial governor. " Drum, 
drum, I say!" repeated Wadsworth; and then, turning to 
Fletcher and fixing his sharp resolute eyes upon him, he said 
— " If I am interrupted again, I will make the sun shine 
through you in a moment !" The tone in which these words 
were spoken was unmistakable. Governor Fletcher knew 
that death would be the consequence, if he should attempt a 
third time to enforce his orders. He prudently forebore, and 
as he saw the people constantly pouring into Hartford and 
thronging about him and his suite with lowering brows and 
angry gestures, he retired from the field, and adopting for 
himself the silence that he had in vain sought to restore to 
the ranks of the Connecticut militia, departed for his own 
jurisdiction.* 

* This lively episode in our history, like the hiding of the charter, rests upon 
tradition; but it has been transmitted through such hands and with so little vari- 
ation, that its accuracy was never for a moment questioned. Such a tradition as 
this, is as worthy of trust as a record, and takes a much stronger hold on the im- 
agination. The story is in perfect keeping with the traits of our people. As 
usual, the authorities were only passive, while the active resistance came from a 
less responsible source. (See Trumbull, i. 393 ; also Holmes, i. 449.) 



CHAPTER XVI. 

CONSPIRACY OF DUDLEY AND CORNBURY 

Connecticut, thus set free from the presence of another 
provincial tyrant, kept on in her old way under the charter. 
She soon had an opportunity of showing her loyalty to King 
William, and lost no time in making amends for what the 
senior captain of the train-bands had done to Governor 
Fletciier. How then could it be presumed for a moment 
that Governor Treat and the Assembly had approved of such 
lawless conduct? 

On the 7th of February 1694, a special Assembly was con- 
vened on account of a requisition that had been received 
rom the king calling upon the colony to raise money for the 
defense of Albany. With much apparent alacrity, the legis- 
lature voted to comply with the demand, and accordingly a 
ax of one penny on the pound was laid to raise the sum of 
five hundred pounds.* The money was paid over into the 
hands of Colonel Fletcher. The magistrates were also di- 
rected to issue their warrants for the impressment of fifty 
bushels of wheat in each county, which was forthwith to be 
made into biscuit, and kept for the use of the soldiers in case 
of any sudden emergency. 

In due time Major-General Winthrop, the agent of the 
colony, arrived in England and hastened to present her 
claims to his majesty. He drew up in writing a statement of 
the whole subject matter of his mission, embracing the in- 
structions under which he acted, together with such reasons 
and arguments as occurred to his own mind. After a full 
hearing, the king's attorney an4 solicitor-general gave an 
opinion favorable to the claims set up by the agent, and on 

* Colonial Records, MS. 



344 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

the 19th of April 1694, his majesty in council graciously de- 
cided in accordance with the report thus made. It was 
determined that Connecticut should place at the disposal of 
Governor Fletcher, during the war, one hundred and twenty 
men, and that the rest of the militia of the colony should be, 
as they ever had been, under the control of the popular 
governor.* This arrangement was perfectly satisfactory 
to Connecticut, as it virtually recognized the existence and 
authority of the charter. 

The aid rendered by Connecticut in the war was constant 
and effective. The whole amount of taxes during the con- 
tinuance of hostilities, amounted to the enormous burden of 
about twenty pence on the pound ; so that at the close of the 
year 1695, the colony had drawn from the pockets of the 
people and paid out seven thousand pounds in the defense of 
New York and Massachusetts. When we consider that the 
ratable polls in the whole jurisdiction numbered less than two 
thousand four hundred, and that the grand list amounted to 
only £137,646, we can not but admire the self-sacrificing 
spirit of the citizens ; and especially when we remember that 
they submitted to this heavy drain from their resources 
from the most magnanimous and unselfish motives that 
ever actuated a people. To this £7,000 is to be added 
£3,000 for the untoward expedition against Canada under 
Winthrop. 

For two years more, until the close of the war in Septem- 
ber 1697, she submitted still further to the arbitrary demands 
of Fletcher, who took the ignominious revenge ofharrassing 
the governor or the assembly in every possible way, to com- 
pensate for the wound that had been inflicted on his dignity 
at Hartford. Again and again he sent out his expresses 
to the governor, representing the advance of the enemy 
towards some exposed place, giving false estimates of their 
numbers and movements, and calling for troops or other 
assistance that involved the necessity of convening the 
Assembly. After the forces thus demanded had set out 
* Trumbull, i. 394, 395. 



[1697.] THE EARL OF BELLAMONT. 345 

upon their march, another messenger would arrive in hot 
haste, informing Governor Treat that the exigency had 
passed by, and that he might recall his forces. In this 
way the governor and council were kept almost constant- 
ly on duty, and the deputies did little else than ride to 
and from the seat of government to attend these special 
assemblies. However, the inhabitants were only too happy 
that in this way they could neutralize the malice of a vin- 
dictive and cowardly spirit, and divert its attention from 
the charter. 

Had the war lasted much longer, the people must have 
become bankrupt, as they had paid at the date of the 
peace of Ryswick* above alluded to, the almost ruinous 
sum of £12,000. But as in the case of Andross and Leis- 
ler, tyranny was destined at last to have an end. 

On the 18th of June 1697, Richard, earl of Bellamont, 
received a commission to be governor of New York and 
Massachusetts. In order to maintain a good footing with 
the king, the Assembly at its October session appointed 
General Winthrop, Major Sellick and the Rev. Gurdon 
Saltonstall, a committee to wait upon the new functionary 
as soon as he should arrive in New York, and pay their 
respects to him in the name of the colony.f It was not 
until the spring of the next year that his excellency came 
over to America. He was very much gratified at receiving 
the congratulations of the committee, who were all gentle- 
men of good address and highly cultivated minds. His 
lordship pronounced Mr. Saltonstall to be the most ele- 



* The treaty of peace was signed at Ryswick, in September 1697, between 
France, England, Spain, and Holland, and was proclaimed at Boston on the 10th 
of December following. Wade, 288 ; Holmes, i. 464. " And the English colo- 
nies had repose from war." Hutchinson, Smollet, Holmes, Blair. 

+ Colony Records. " Captain Nathan Gold to fill any vacancy that may occur 
in this committee." 

At the same session (Oct. 1697,) the Assembly ordered, "That for the future 
there shall be three or fovr, at least, of the most able and judicious persons in each 
county appointed Justices of the Peace for the year." This is the first appoint- 
ment of Jastices of the Peace as distinct from the oflBce of " Magistrate." 



846 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

gant man whom he had seen in America, and one whose 
appearance most resembled that of an English nobleman. 

Owing to the happy termination of the war and the prom- 
ise of a new state of things, now that Fletcher was no longer 
in the way of their advancement, the inhabitants of Con- 
necticut again looked forward to the future with new 
anticipations. 

Grateful to General Winthrop for his faithfulness in the 
discharge of his trust in England, the people elected him 
governor in the place of Mr. Treat, who was now far ad- 
vanced in life. Still, to show their unabated confidence in 
the former executive, while they relieved him of the more 
cumbersome burdens of office, they appointed him deputy 
governor. 

At the October session for the year 1698, it was decided 
that there should be two distinct legislative houses in the Gen- 
eral Assembly. The governor, or, in his absence, the dep- 
uty governor, and magistrates, were to constitute the upper 
house ; while the deputies, the immediate representatives of 
the people, were to make up what was called the lower 
house. The action of these two branches of the legislature 
was to be independent, and no new law was to be enacted nor 
was any old one to be repealed or altered without the separate 
action and consent of both these powers. The deputies 
were to choose a speaker and other officers much as is now 
done in the house of representatives.* 

This new organization first went into effect at the May 
session 1699. Mr. John Chester, of Wethersfield, was the 
first speaker of the lower house, and Captain William Whi- 
ting was the first clerk. They were both gentlemen of high 
character, and of great experience in public affairs. 

In June 1659, Governor Winthrop had received permission 
from the General Court to purchase a tract of land at Quini- 
baug. He had also bought another valuable estate of Al- 
lups and Mashaushawit, the native proprietors, lying on 
either bank of the Quinibaug river. A few families had 

* Colonial Records, MS. 



PLAINFIELD AND DURHAM INCORPORATED. 847 

already settled upon these lands before he obtained the title ; 
but the population did not increase to any considerable 
extent until after the death of the governor. In 1689, a 
number of planters — a large share of whom came from Mas- 
sachusetts — bought of the heirs of Governor Winthrop the 
northern portion of this territory, and began to plant and 
build upon it. The settlement gradually increased in popu- 
lation for about ten years, and in the spring of 1699, it 
became a town. In the year 1700 its name was changed 
from Quinibaug to Plainfield. 

At the October session 1698, it was enacted that there 
should be a new plantation made at " Jeremy's Farm."* 
The settlement began in 1701, and in 1703 the land was 
confirmed to the planters by a patent. The Rev. John 
Bulkley, Samuel Gilbert, Michael Taintor, Samuel Northam, 
John Adams, Jonathan Kilborn, Joseph Pomeroy, and John 
Loomis were among the principal proprietors. 

At the same session, leave was granted to certain inhabit- 
ants of Guilford to begin a plantation at a place called 
Cogingchaug. The settlement had a feeble infancy, al- 
though there were thirty-one original applicants who signed 
the petition. The two first planters who actually removed 
and settled upon the tract, were Caleb Seward and David 
Robinson. Others soon followed them. In May 1704, it 
was named Durham. Its population still continued small for 
several years. In 1707, it contained but about fifteen fam- 
ilies. In May 1708, it was incorporated, and after that it 
began to thrive. Northampton, Stratford, Milford, and other 
old towns, lent to it, soon after its incorporation, some of 
their best inhabitants. 

The boundary between Connecticut and New York had 
long been a fruitful theme of dispute and controversy. The 
line agreed upon by the royal commissioners in 1683, was 
confirmed by the king in council, March 28, 1700. The 
government of New York, however, being dissatisfied with 

t Colony Records, MS. 



348 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

the bounds as thus determined, refused to unite with Con- 
necticut in running the line, and designating it by proper 
landmarks. The General Assembly of this colony, after 
making repeated applications to Lord Cornbury and Gov- 
ernor Hunter without avail, finally appealed to the king. 
In consequence of this, the legislature of New York, in 
1719, passed an act empowering their governor to appoint 
commissioners to run the line parallel to Hudson's river, to 
re-survey the former lines, and to erect the necessary mon- 
uments to distinguish the boundary. It was not, however, 
until May, 1725, that the commissioners and surveyers of 
the two colonies actually commenced operations. Meeting 
at Greenwich, and agreeing upon the nrianner in which they 
should proceed, the survey was commenced and executed in 
part, when, as is alleged, in consequence of some disagree- 
ment, the work was suspended, and each party made a re- 
port to its respective legislature. It was not until May, 
1731, that a complete settlement of the boundary was per- 
fected. By the bounds, as finally established, Connecticut 
very unwisely ceded to New York a tract of territory ex- 
tending along the line of her western frontier, estimated at 
about sixty thousand acres — comprising some of the most 
fertile and beautiful lands within her ancient domain. This 
territory, from its peculiar shape, is still called Oblong. The 
pretended consideration for this summary sale, was the sur- 
render to Connecticut by New York of a few additional miles 
of sea-coast and the lands adjacent, embracing the town of 
Greenwich, and perhaps a part of Stamford — both of which 
townships had long been recognized as belonging to this ju- 
risdiction. 

About this time the settlement of Voluntown on the ex- 
treme eastern border of the colony was commenced. The 
greater part of the territory comprised within the limits of 
the town, was granted in 1696, to the volunteers of the Nar- 
ragansett war, from which circumstance its name is derived. 
The township was originally six miles square, and was 
surveyed out of the tract known as the " conquered land." 



[1702] WAR WITH FRANCE AND SPAIN. 849 

In 1719, the Assembly granted a large addition on the north, 
and incorporated the town*. 

Nawbesetuck was set off from Windham in 1703, and in- 
corporated as a distinct town by the name of Mansfield. 
The names of some of the early settlers were, Storrs, Fen- 
ton, Porter, Rogers, Hall, and Barrows. 

A settlement had been made at Danbury as early as 1685, 
and eight years afterwards the township was surveyed. The 
town patent bears date. May 20, 1702. f The first settlers 
and principal proprietors were James Beebe, of Stratford, 
Thomas Barnum, Thomas Taylor, Francis Bushnel, James 
Benedict, John Hoyt, Samuel Benedict, and Judah Gre- 
gory, all of Norwalk. This fine old town has since been 
the scene of tragic interest, which has indissolubly linked its 
history and its fame with those of the State. J 

At the October session of the Assembly, 1703, it was en- 
acted that the town of Plainfield should be divided, and that 
the territory on the west side of the Quinibaug river should 
form a distinct township by the name of Canterbury. Ma- 
jor James Fitch and Mr. Solomon Tracy from Norwich, 
Mr. Tixhall Ellsworth and Mr. Samuel Ashley from Hart- 
ford, and Messrs. John, Richard, and Joseph Woodward, 
William, Obadiah, and Joseph Johnson, Josiah and Samuel 
Cleveland, Elisha Paine, Paul Davenport, and Henry Adams, 
from Massachusetts, were among the principal settlers. § 

In May, 1702, war was declared by England, Germany, 
and the Netherlands against France and Spain ; of course 
the American colonies were soon involved in the conflict. 
At its October session (1703) the Assembly once more took 
into consideration what could be done for the common safety. 
A requisition, made by Governor Dudley and the General 
Court of Massachusetts, for one hundred men to be sent 

* Colony Records, MS ; see also Barber, 443. + Colony Records, MS. 

i Trumbull i. 404. 

6 At the October session, 1702, it was ordered that Town Clerks should 
" call the roll at each town meeting, and such freemen as were found to be ab- 
sent should be subjected to a fine of two shillings," &c. / 



350 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

from Connecticut to aid them in the war with the eastern 
Indians, was exhibited at this session, and a committee of war 
was appointed, with plenary powers to send troops into Mas- 
sachusetts and into the frontier towns of Connecticut. 
Troops were also ordered forth to defend our towns border- 
ing on the province of New York.* 

The Indians grew more and more restive during the win- 
ter. They felt the irksomeness of peace. Even the friend- 
ly Indians were ill at ease. 

On the 15th of March 1704, a special Assembly was called. 
The civil and military officers in all the towns were ordered 
to take especial care of the friendly Indians, and keep them 
from yielding to the bribery and solicitations of the enemy. 
As these Indians were of little use at home and very service- 
able in ranging the woods and tracking out the enemy, it 
was thought best to employ as many of them as could be en- 
gaged in active service. To facilitate this object, gentlemen 
were appointed to beat up for Indian volunteers and enlist 
them.f 

Aside from the one hundred men sent to the eastern fron- 
tier in answer to the requisition from Massachusetts, four 
hundred men were raised for the protection of the county of 
Hampshire, and for the defense of Connecticut. 

The fears of Governor Dudley of Massachusetts, and the 
exactions of Lord Cornbury, governor of New York and 
the Jerseys, kept our colony in constant employ. Lord 
Cornbury, as Fletcher had done before him, made demands 
for more money than a weary people, and almost empty treas- 
ury, would warrant. His lordship appears to have been ter- 
ribly frightened, and whenever his timidity abandoned him 

* At the same session, the Town Office of Lister was estabhshed. An act 
was passed, that persons convicted of selling liquors without a license, or keeping 
a tippling house, should be publicly whipped if the fines, costs, and security for 
good behavior, were not paid within twenty-four hours after such conviction. 

+ These friendly Indians were not to go beyond certain prescribed limits with- 
out a written order ; they were forbidden to have any thing whatever to do with 
the " enemy Indians," but were to seize and deliver up such as they could capture, 
for which they were to receive ten pounds apiece. — Colony Records, MS. 



CHARACTER OF DUDLEY AND CORNBURY. 851 

for a brief interval, his malevolence towards Connecticut, 
and his ambition to unite her to his other dominions, rushed in 
like air into an exhausted receiver, to supply its place. Gov- 
ernor Dudley was very useful to Lord Cornbury in suggest- 
ing things to say to the authorities in England that would be 
most likely to poison the mind of Queen Anne against Con- 
necticut, and induce her majesty to make an effort, as two of 
her predecessors had done, to pluck the charter out of the 
hands of the people. 

Of these two colonial governors, Dudley was possessed of 
much the larger share of shrewdness and intrigue. He had 
been a member of Sir Edmund Andross' council,* and had 
shared in the bitterness of his prejudices against the colony. 
Besides, he was even then looking forward to the time when 
he should fill the executive chair in place of Andross, and was 
anxious to further his prospects for promotion, by showing as 
much zeal as possible in this shameful war waged by a king 
against the rights of his subjects. / 

This darling object of his ambition, so long entertained, 
Dudley pursued with the steadiness of aim that belongs to 
all keen-sighted, intriguing men, who lay their plans quite 
beneath the calm surface of society, as well-skilled anglers 
play their hooks in the eddies and under-currents that circle 
the depths of a shaded pool. With this view he had, before 
the death of King William, taken all possible precautionary 
measures against the promotion of men who were thought 
to be friendly to the liberties of New England. Hence, 
when he found that Sir Henry Ashurst had been appointed 
agent for Connecticut, he used all his influence to induce so 
good a friend of the colony as he knew him to be, not to ac- 
cept the trust. He made repeated attacks upon the New 
England charters, and employed force as well as fraud to get 
possession of them or render them inoperative. 

He had already attained the first object of his ambition — 
he was governor of Massachusetts ; but this was only a sin- 
gle round in the ladder that he had proposed to himself to 

* Hutchinson. 



352 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

climb. Connecticut was fast increasing in population and 
wealth. From the fact that she spent her resources so free- 
ly in defense of the other colonies, she appeared to be much 
more opulent than she really was. How desirable to add all 
this rich taxable domain to the resources of a colonial ex- 
chequer ! Besides, was she not arrogant and impertinent in 
persisting to keep her charter and pretending to exercise un- 
der it rights that had been relinquished by her neighbors ? 
How pleasant to strip the plumage from this wild game-bird, 
and feast his revenge with a morsel that had eluded his ap- 
petite so long ! 

So industrious had Dudley been, and so adroitly had he 
played his game, that towards the close of William's reign 
he had succeeded in having a bill prepared to re-unite all 
the charter governments to the crown. Scarcely was Queen 
Anne seated upon the throne, when it was brought into parlia- 
ment. This bill aimed not only at the New England charters, 
but also at those of East and West New Jersey, Pennsylva- 
nia, Maryland, and the Bahama and Lucay Islands, because 
it averred that these charters were injurious to the trade of 
the kingdom, discouraging to the other plantations, and ten- 
ded to cut off the revenues of the crown. It went on to 
charge the charter governments with encouraging piracy 
and every mode of contraband trade, and declared " That 
all and singular, matters, and things, contained in any char- 
ters or letters patent, granted by the great seal of England, 
by any of his royal predecessors, by his present majesty, or 
the late queen, to any of the said plantations, or to any per- 
sons in them, should be utterly void, and of none effect. It 
further enacted, that all such power, authority, privileges, 
and jurisdictions, should be, and were re-united, annexed to, 
and vested in his majesty, his heirs and successors, in right 
of the crown of England, to all intents and purposes, as 
though no such charters or letters patent had been had or 
made."* 

* Bill on file. Dudley eontlmiod in tlie office of Governor of Massachusetts 
until 1715. lie had previously been President of Massachusetts and New 



ASHURST DEFENDS THE COLONY. 353 

This blow was well understood by Sir Henry Ashurst, the 
agent of the colony, to be aimed mainly at Connecticut. 
His honorable and manly nature revolted at the injustice 
thus attempted to be practiced under the sanction of legisla- 
tion. He therefore hastened to prefer his petition to the 
House of Lords, wherein he set forth the objects of the bill, 
and prayed that it might not have the sanction of parlia- 
ment. The petition stated at full length the condition of 
Connecticut, and the wrong that would be practiced upon 
her inhabitants were the charter of Charles 11. to be annul- 
led ; that her institutions were peculiar to herself; and that 
all the relations of her people, the very tenures by which 
they held their property, their religious privileges, and their 
social texture, were all the growth of the charter ; and if 
that should be taken from them, they would be exposed to 
the most radical changes, and perhaps involved in utter 
ruin; that the charges of piracy and contraband trade, re- 
cited at length in the bill, whatever might be true else- 
where, could not be truthfully brought against this colony, 
whose people were agricultural in their habits, and whose 
authorities administered their offices with great simplicity 
and purity. 

This petition finally obtained a hearing before the House of 
Lords. It was well presented in behalf of the colony. As 
at other times, the history of the people in whose behalf it 
was made was briefly recited ; their hardships in commencing 
the settlement ; their efforts to defend it ; their long-tried 
loyalty ; the sacrifices that they had made of time, money 
and life, to keep inviolate the honor of the British flag against 
so many enemies ; and many other reasons, were urged with 
great earnestness. 

The general effect that the bill would have upon the en- 
terprise of the nation, the dishonor that would be brought 
upon the royal name, were it once understood that no faith 

Hampshire ; Chief Justice of Massachusetts and New York ; Agent of Massa- 
chusetts in England ; and Lieut. Governor of the Isle of Wight. He died in 
Boston, 1720, aged 72. Blake's Un. Biog. Die. 

23 



354 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

could be put in the grants naade by the crown, and the un- 
settled state of affairs that would prevail throughout all the 
business relations of the empire, were old titles thus to be 
torn up by the roots, were not left out of view. Beset with 
such powerful weapons, the bill was defeated. 

Enraged at the failure of this favorite method of accom- 
plishing his ends, Dudley now set himself to the task of 
playing upon the prejudices and ill-concealed ambition of 
Cornbury. He affected to take the part of his brother gov- 
ernor, and to favor his views. He assured Cornbury of his 
own disinterestedness and of his willingness to aid him in 
bringing Connecticut under his government. He was only 
too happy to serve his lordship in any way. Independent of 
personal considerations he was actuated by a sense of jus- 
tice. Not only should Connecticut be joined to New York, 
but the southern colonies should be added to them. 

Cornbury, weak man as he was, could hardly be expected to 
resist these flattering promises nor did the chances of success 
seem doubtful. He was himself a near relative of Queen 
Anne,* and had a circle of aristocratic friends who were al- 
lied to him by blood and who possessed the confidence of her 
majesty. Connecticut, also, as all the other states have 
done, cherished some unhappy sons, who, from disappointed 
political hopes or from pecuniary motives, were only waiting 
for sufficient vitality to fasten their poisonous fangs into the 
bosom that had warmed them. These malcontents, — I will 
not name them in my textf — could of course be made useful 
to Dudley in any enterprise that was likely to advance their 
fortunes or feed their revenge. 

As Dudley had failed in one attempt upon the liberties of 

* Lord Cornbury (Edward Hyde) was a son of the Earl of Carendon, and a 
first cousin of Queen Anne. (See Agnes Strickland's " Lives of the Queens of 
England," Vol. xii. p. 43.) He was a bigot in religion, and oppressive and un- 
just in his administration of the government. He was removed from [office in 
1708, and died in England in 1723. Blake's Un. Biog. Die. 

t Perhaps the most conspicuous of these ambitious and restless spirits was 
Major Edward Palms, a son-in-law of Governor Winthrop. His disaffection 
with the colonial government seems to have arisen mainly from the fact that, 



[1704.] BULKLEY'S "will AI^D DOOM." 855 

the colony, he determined to lay the foundations of his sec- 
ond scheme with greater solidity. It was obvious that the 
bill to rob Connecticut of her charter had failed mainly from 
the fact that none of the specific charges named in it 
had been previously laid against her and substantiated by 
legal evidence. It was decided, therefore, to convict her au- 
thorities of mal-administration, contraband trade, piracy, and 
the other crimes named in the bill of abominations whose 
fate had cost its authors so many keen regrets. 

With the aid of Cornbury, therefore, Dudley lost no time 
in filing his charges of complaint against the colony. False 
witnesses were procured to establish these charges, and all 
the customary modes of making evidence, were resorted to 
with a perseverance that evinced how resolute and unscru- 
pulous were the principal actors in the scene. Even the 
blandishments of letters were brought to delight the English 
mind with one of the most remarkable fictions that has ever 
had its origin in the human brain. I need hardly say that I 
refer to Bulkley's "Will and Doom," — previously alluded to 
— a work that has made indeed all other American histori- 

the General Assembly decided agcainst his application to annul the will of Gov. 
Winthrop. It seems that Palms had not been named in the will of the governor, 
as he claimed he ought to have been ; but the Assembly declared in favor of the 
will because the wife of Palms had previously deceased. Palms appealed to 
the king in council, and proceeded to England to prosecute his case. The council, 
however, confirmed the decision of Connecticut. Maj. Palms died in New Lon- 
don, March 21, 1714, aged 78. 

Nicholas Hallam, also a leader in the crusade against Connecticut, became dis- 
affected with the colony in a similar manner. His step-father (Mr. Liveen,) had 
bequeathed most of his property to " the ministry of New London," and Hallam 
determined to break the will. The case was tried before the county court and 
the court of assistants, both of which decided that the will was valid. The suit 
was carried to England, where after a delay of more than four years, the decision 
of the Connecticut courts was sustained. See Caulkins' History of New London, 
pp. 222—228. 

Palms and Hallam, excited as they were, stood ready to take sides with any one 
who might be brought in collision with Connecticut from whatever cause. Hence, 
Cornbury and Dudley found in them efficient friends ; hence, too, their active 
sympathy in behalf of the Mohegans and their zeal for the " Mason heirs," as will 
hereafter appear. 



356 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

cal extravagances, save Peters' " History of Connecticut," 
of which it was the type and herald, tame and cold. 

This book had been written soon after the close of Sir 
Edmund Andross' administration, and was now resuscitated 
and sent over from New York by Lord Cornbury, with some 
other documentary evidence against the colony. It was re- 
ceived in England on the 16th of January, 1705.* 

Aside from the accusations before made against the colony, 
the complaint alleged that it was a place of refuge for sea- 
men, servants, malefactors, and other fugitives from justice 
who fled from the other colonies, that it also took under its 
protection young men who went there from New York and 
Massachusetts to avoid taxation resulting from the wars, 
that had thrown such heavy burdens upon all the northern 
colonies except Connecticut ; that this colony had refused to 
;aid in the fortification of New York and Albany, and had 
ifailed to send men to defend Massachusetts against the 

* This singular work, though anonymous, is supposed to be from the pen of the 
Rev. Gershom Bulkley, who graduated at Harvard College in 1659 ; was settled 
in the ministry at l^ew London from 1661 to 1666, and in Wethersfield from that 
latter date until 1677. He then removed to Glastenbury where he practiced 
medicine for over thirty years, and died in 1713. As a politician, he was opposed 
to the assumption of the government by the colonial authorities in 1089, after the 
arrest of Andross. In 1689, he published a pamphlet on the affairs of Connecti- 
cut, but no copy of it is now known to exist. (See Dr. Chapin's Hist, of Glasten- 
bury.) " Will and Doom" was doubtless written soon after. December 15, 1692, 
Major Palms, Gershom Bulkley and Wm. Rosewell appended to the MS. volume 
their certificate, in which they say, that to their " best knowledge of things, the 
state of affairs in Connecticut is therein truly represented," and they " doubt not but 
every material passage in it may easily be proved by them." To be sure, it is not 
often that an author volunteers a formal certificate of the probable truth of his 
own work ; but in this case, Mr. Bulkley may have done so for the purpose of 
better concealing the authorship of the volume, which was not calculated to in- 
crease his popularity in New England. The MS. was indorsed as follows, on its 
arrival in England : " Mr. Bulkley's ' Will and Doom,' relating to grievances and 
irregularities in the Province of Connecticut." " Received with Lord Cornbury's 
of the 6th of November 1704. Vide New York, Bundle X, 18." " Received 
16 January -, read 1st. February 1704-5. Entered Proprieties, fol. 126. No. 20." 

Some have supposed that the book in question was written by the Rev. John 
Bulkley, of Colchester — but the improbability of this is apparent from the fact, 
that he did not graduate until 1699, and " Will and Doom" is not the work of a boy. 



[1705.] OWANECO'S PETITION, 357 

French and Indians.* All this time Dudley smiled blandly 
upon the colony that he was thus plotting to destroy, and in 
a letter that bore almost an even date with these infamous 
allegations, he thanked the General Assembly for the liberal 
supplies that they had bestowed upon Massachusetts, and 
the readiness with which they had responded to his requisi- 
tions. 

I have said it was a part of the plan of operations to con- 
ciliate certain malcontents who lived in Connecticut. These 
men now aided Dudley in furnishing evidence against the 
colony, by giving currency to a ridiculous story that the 
General Assembly had abused Owaneco, chief of the Mohe- 
gans, and had driven his tribe from their planting grounds. 
Whoever knows any thing of the history of that tribe and of 
the sacrifices made by Connecticut to protect it from ene- 
mies that would have annihilated it long before this con- 
spiracy was made, can judge what credit should be given to 
a tale that contradicts all the records that have been trans- 
mitted to us relating to the affairs of that expensive and 
burdensome tribe. Yet, inconsistent as was the accusation, 
it was penned into a petition to the queen, ostensibly in 
behalf of the Mohegans, but really with no other motives 
than avarice and revenge on the part of the applicants, repre- 
senting the General Assembly in such false colors that it 
could not fail to deceive the ears for which it was intended, 
especially when presented and advocated by such men as 
Dudley. Had the complaint charged the colony with un- 
kindness towards the Pequots after the strength of their 
tribe had been broken, and with yielding to the solicitations 
of Uncas, or submitting to the cruel robberies that he was 
allowed to perpetrate upon that suffering people ; or had it 

* Nothing could surpass the wicked falsehood of these two charges, unless it 
were the ingratitude that could allow the governors of these invaded colonies to 
deny the services of our troops in saving their inhabiUints from the tomahawk 
and the ruinous taxes that our people paid with cheerfulness to answer pecuniary 
demands, sometimes entirely unnecessary and often greatly exaggerated — services 
rendered and taxes paid, as in the case of New York under Leisler's administra- 
tion, in behalf of a people who either could not or would not help themselves. 



358 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

charged Connecticut, in common with the rest of New Eng- 
land, with the guilt that often accompanies a too easy credu- 
lity, because she had lent a willing ear to Mohegan prejudices, 
and consented to the judicial murder of Miantinomoh ; or 
because her fears had led her to sacrifice Nanuntenoo, there 
might have been some show of justice in the arraignment. 
But it has always been the fate of Connecticut to be put 
upon her deliverance for imaginary crimes, for the reason 
that her faults in some cases were too slight, and in others at- 
tended with too palliating circumstances to justify the malice 
of her enemies or afford a palpable ground of conviction. 

The sympathies of the queen were touched at the sup- 
posed sufferings of the Mohegans, so wantonly inflicted by 
her English subjects, and, without waiting to allow Connecti- 
cut a hearing, she granted, on the 19th of July 1704, a com- 
mission to Dudley and Palms, the arch-enemies of the 
colony, and others, their instruments — twelve in all — to hear 
and try the cause of the afflicted Owaneco against Connecti- 
cut.* 

Preparatory to this farcical court, on the 5th of July 1705, 
John Chandler, in behalf of Owaneco — whose ancestors had 
received the consideration-money more than twice over 
for all the lands that had ever gone out of their possession — 
and Mason, and the other claimants, in behalf of themselves, 
began a survey of the Mohegan country. They ran out the 
lines in accordance with their own claims, and having com- 
pleted the perambulation, they made a map of the territory 
such as suited well enough the uses of a hearing before a 
tribunal that was understood to have pre-judged the case. 

The lines as run by Chandler and his assistants had for 
their southern boundary a large rock in Connecticut river 
near Eight-Mile-Island, in Lyme, and thence took an easter- 
ly course through Lyme, New London, and Groton, to a lit- 

* The Court of Commissioners consisted of the following persons, viz. ; — Joseph 
Dudley, Esq., President, Edward Palms, Giles Sylvester, Jahleel Brenton, 
Nathaniel Byfield, Thomas Hooker, James Avery, John Avery, John Morgan, 
and Thomas LefSngwell. The other two appear to have been absent. 



[1705.] THE MOHEGAN CONTROVERSY. 359 

tie lake in the north-eastern part of Stonington, called Ah- 
yo-sup-suck ; thence northerly, to another lake called Mah- 
man-suck, thence to a place called the Whetstone hills, and 
thence to Man-hum-squeeg, or the Whetstone country. 
From this last named point (if indeed it was a point) the 
line veered off in a south-westerly course, a distance of 
several miles, to the upper falls in the Quinibaug river; 
here, taking a new track, it darted away to the north-west 
through Pomfret, Ashford, Willington, and Tolland, to the 
Notch of Bolton mountain, and thence, "instinct with fire 
and nitre," the liberal-minded surveyors took wing in a 
southerly course, across Bolton, Hebron, and East Haddam, 
to the place of beginning. 

Having completed his survey, his map, and all his other 
enginery of self-conviction — and who could judge so well as 
his excellency of the machinery best calculated to subdue 
his scruples — Governor Dudley carried his court into Con- 
necticut, and planted it in a convenient place within the/ 
limits of Stonington. 

As Connecticut had not been allowed a hearing as to the 
propriety of creating this special court, so did the court fail 
to serve her with a copy of the commission that was to try 
the question of title and jurisdiction to some of the most 
valuable lands within her boundaries ; — so that she remained 
in ignorance till the day of the hearing, whether the com- 
mission merely authorized a court of inquiry, or whether it 
was to determine the title to the lands. 

She therefore sent a committee to be present at the open- 
ing of the court, and find out what was the extent of its 
powers. If it was a court of inquiry, they were instruct- 
ed to defend ; if it was designed to try the title, they were 
commanded to enter their solemn protest in behalf of the 
colony, and withdraw in silence. At the same time, all the 
inhabitants of Connecticut who claimed any interest in the 
controverted lands, were forbidden to put in any plea or 
make any answer before the court. The names of the gen- 
tlemen composing this committee, were William Pitkin, John 



360 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Chester, Eleazer Kimberly, Esqrs., Maj. William Whiting, 
Mr. John Elliott, and Mr. Richard Lord. 

Governor Winthrop, on the 21st of August, wrote a letter 
to Dudley, in which he is careful to speak of the commission 
as authorizing only a preliminary court. 

When the committee had arrived at the place of trial and 
had learned that it was the intention of the tribunal to set- 
tle questions of title, they tendered to Dudley their written 
protest. After sketching, with a few hasty strokes, the folly 
and wantonness of the charges brought against Connecticut, 
the committee go on to say, '^ We must declare against and 
prohibit all such proceedings as contrary to law and to the 
letters patent under the great seal of England granted to this 
her majesty's colony." In conclusion they add, " It seems 
strange to us that your excellency should proceed in such a 
manner, without first communicating your commission to 
the General Assembly of this her majesty's colony." 

After an ex parte hearing of a single day, in which the 
Indian, Owaneco, who probably did not care a whiff of to- 
bacco smoke about the controversy, aside from the paltry 
presents that he might have expected for allowing his name 
to be used in it, and the other applicants, had it all their own 
way, and procured a judgment in their favor.* 

If ever there was a piece of judicial villainy it was this, 
by which the property of hundreds of persons, and the juris- 
diction of a colony, were disposed of without serving any 
notice upon the respondents by the adverse party in interest, 
who had caused themselves to be constituted a tribunal to 
sit in judgment upon their own untenable claims. 

* The Court adjudged to Owaneco and the Mohegans a tract of land in New 
London, called Massapeag; and another tract in the northern part of the same 
town, containing about eleven hundred acres ; also, a tract in Lyme, two miles in 
breadth and nine miles in length, together with the whole tract contained in the 
town of Colchester. These lands had been obtained by conquest, purchase treaty, 
and other lawful means, and had been settled upon by persons who held their 
deeds or patents from the Assembly. The court ordered Connecticut immedi- 
ately to restore all these lands to Owaneco •, and also prohibited all her majesty's 
subjects from settling upon or improving certain other large tracts, until a fur- 
ther hearing and determination of the case. 



[1705] TRIAL OF CONNECTICUT. 861 

I have said that this Mohegan affair, as far as Dudley 
was interested in it, was designed to prejudice the mind of 
the queen against Connecticut, so that she might be the 
more readily induced to regard the people as outlaws, who 
had forfeited their charter privileges, and were entitled to no 
mercy at her hands. The fact that the hearing was not had 
until after the trial of the principal allegations against Con- 
necticut before the queen in council, made little difference. 
The charge having been made, the chief mischief was ac- 
complished, as the colony was in much the same condition 
that an accused person is while awaiting his trial for the 
commission of a crime. It is true that theoretically the law 
presumes him innocent till proved guilty, but no legal 
maxim or presumption can do away with the impression 
made upon the public mind even by a false accusation.* 

On the 12th of February, 1705, after the last bundle of 
evidence that had been shipped by Cornbury from America 
was received in England, the trial of Connecticut for her 
charter, which had been postponed at the solicitation of Sir 
Henry Ashurst, in order that he might receive further evi- 
dence and further instructions from the General Assembly, 
came on before the queen in council. 

Dudley had prepared his case with great address, and Corn- 
bury had seconded him with an equal amount of industry 
and spite. The former had dug up from the archives of 
King William's reign a precedent in favor of the proposition 
that the crown had power to appoint a governor over Con- 
necticut. He had also attempted to get an opinion from 
the then acting attorney-general favorable to his case ; but 

* This famous " Mohegan case," after having agitated Connecticut more than 
seventy years, was finally determined in favor of the colony in 1743. The lands 
in dispute, or some part of them, had been acquired by Major Mason, as agent 
of Connecticut — who, in a somewhat informal manner, surrendered them to 
the colony in March, 1661. (See J. 11. Trumbull's Colonial Records, i. 359.) 
The heirs of Mason, and certain other designing persons, subsequently instituted 
a claim for the lands, and prosecuted it with great tenacity. The pretense that 
the Mohegans were oppressed or driven off by the English settlers, was simply 
designed for effect. 



862 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT, 

the best that he could induce the guarded functionary to do 
for him, was to make the statement " that if it were as Gov- 
ernor Dudley had represented, there was a defect in the Gov- 
ernment, that the colony was not able to defend itself and 
in imminent danger of being possessed by the queen's ene- 
mies ; and that in such case, the queen might send a governor 
for civil and military government, but not to alter the lav)s 
and customs." Nobody could find any fault with this opin- 
ion. It would have been equally tenable had he said, " if 
the authorities harbored pirates and carried on contraband 
trade," as Governor Dudley had represented, " they ought to 
be adjudged guilty of felony without the benefit of clergy." 
There is much significance in a legal opinion that is heralded 
with an " if' It implies at least that the facts have not 
yet been passed upon. 

As had been the case in the Mohegan affair, so in this most 
vital matter, the grounds of the accusation and the argu- 
ments that would be set up by the complainants, had been 
kept secret from the agent of the colony. True, however, 
to the interests of his principals, as on former occasions he 
had proved himself. Sir Henry Ashurst* nobly stood his 
ground. He knew that this was a desperate struggle for 
colonial existence against injustice and oppression, and that 
it called for all the address of which he was master, and all 
the influence that he could command. He was a brother-in- 
law of Lord Paget, a nobleman of fine abilities and power- 
ful connections. His lordship, whose sense of justice was 
outraged by the behavior of the applicants, magnanimously 
espoused the cause of Connecticut, and threw into the scale 
that he desired should preponderate, the full weight of his 
disinterested influence with the queen's favorites and the 
members of the council. He procured the professional aid 
of two of the best advocates in England, who met the 

* This gentleman was a son of Henry Ashurst, Esq., member of parliament, 
and a firm friend to New England. Sir Henry had previously been the agent of 
Massachusetts at the Court of Great Britain ; but accepted the agency of Con- 
necticut in 1704, and continued to act in that capacity until his death in 1710. 



[1705] DEFENSE OF CONNECTICUT. 363 

sophistries and exposed the false statements of Dudley, 
Cornbury, Congreve, and the whole host of assailants, 
who argued the cause for an hour and a half before the 
council with great eloquence and force. I need not go over 
the grounds urged by these gentlemen, as they will suggest 
themselves to the reader who has had the patience to peruse 
the preceding chapter. 

After exposing the intrigues of Dudley and his fellow con- 
spirators, the counsel in behalf of the colony went on to 
say, that whatever might be the real truth in relation to the 
allegations, it was a sacred right extended to all British sub- 
jects by the constitution itself, that all persons and corpora- 
tions should have an oportunity to be heard, before any 
legal proceeding against them could be the basis of a judg- 
ment. The advocates powerfully pressed upon the minds of 
the council the consideration, that as this necessary pre-re- 
quisite had not been complied with in relation to the govern- 
or and company of Connecticut, it would be doing them a 
great and unprecedented wrong to take from them their most 
precious rights — nay, their very political life, without giving 
them the opportunity of confronting their accusers. Then a 
well-timed allusion was made to the motives that led to the 
accusation, and a very striking portraiture was drawn of 
the overshadowing growth and noxious qualities of execu- 
tive ambition in a remote part of the empire, beyond the 
conservative influences of her majesty's personal supervision. 
The patronage attending such a position as that held by 
Dudley, the facility of procuring witnesses who, from inte- 
rested motives, could be induced to falsify their testimony, 
were dwelt upon as so many facts that should put the coun- 
cil upon their guard while the limited power of the governor 
of Connecticut under the charter, watched as he was by the 
other branches of the government and amenable to the an- 
nual suffrages of the freemen, afforded a very strong pre- 
sumption in his favor, and seemed to call still more loudly 
for a public hearing of the evidence that might be within 



864 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

reach of the corporation. Waxing warm as they dwelt 
upon the contrast between such men as Dudley and Corn- 
bury on the one hand, and Treat and Winthrop on the other, 
these gentlemen boldly urged, that in the case of a provin- 
cial governor who held during the pleasure of the crown, and 
who was liable to lose nothing but his. office, avarice often 
tempted the incumbent to perpetrate the most barbarous 
cruelties, and that it might be found upon investigation of 
the evidence, that Governor Winthrop was better fitted to 
govern Connecticut, than Cornbury was to rule in New York, 
or Dudley in Massachusetts. In conclusion, they begged that 
a copy of the complaint might be sent to the governor and 
company of Connecticut, that they might prepare themselves 
at a future day to defend the corporation. 

So reasonable was this request that the council could not 
fail to comply with it. It was therefore ordered that copies 
of the principal charges in the complaint should be made out 
and sent, one to the governor of Connecticut, and one to 
Dudley and Cornbury, the chief complainants ; that Connec- 
ticut should make her answer to each allegation, and estab- 
lish such answer if she could, by evidence legally taken 
and duly sealed with the seal of the colony. Dudley and 
Cornbury were in like manner to forward their proofs in 
proper legal form. 

Nothing could have been more unsatisfactory to Dudley 
and Cornbury than this just decision. They saw at once 
that their schemes were ruined and their intrigues exposed. 
They saw the castles that they had built upon the crumbling 
foundations of calumny and lies, already beginning to topple 
down upon their heads. For did they not know that of all 
the accusations so pompously paraded in their complaint, not 
one of them could stand before the array of unimpeachable 
testimony that would be sent out against it by the outraged 
and insulted colony ? Poor Dudley, the cunning artificer of 
this fraud, had need of all his fortitude to sustain him, for 
the General Assembly were able to prove, that instead of 



[1705.] THE CAUSE OF CONNECTICUT TRIUMPHANT. 365 

neglecting Massachusetts and New York in their day of 
peril, as he had attempted to make the queen believe, and 
that instead of leaving the inhabitants of those provinces 
without men and supplies, Connecticut had during that year 
and the preceding one, kept six hundred troops in constant 
requisition, and that two-thirds of that number had been en- 
gaged in actual service in those provinces. She could prove, 
too, that while her people had scarcely two thousand pounds 
of money in circulation in the whole colony, they had in 
three years expended a much greater sum in defending New^ 
York and Massachusetts. What was still more mortifying 
to Dudley, they had in their keeping a most flattering letter 
under his own hand, in which he thanked them for the gen- 
erous aid that they had given him, and for their services dur- 
ing the war. To corroborate even his admissions against 
himself, they had also on file, ready to be produced, letters 
of commendation and thanks from the officers who had com- 
manded in Massachusetts, and from the principal gentlemen 
there, all speaking the language of gratitude for services 
rendered by Connecticut. As to the cowardly charges of 
disloyalty to the government, contraband trade, harboring 
fugitives from justice or taxation, and that more infamous 
one of piracy, who knew better than the author of them, how 
vain would be the attempt to prove them, and with what 
triumph the evidence that was within the reach of the colony 
could sweep them away ? 

No wonder, then, that he gave up the complaint as hope- 
less, and set himself, as I have already detailed, to execute a 
commission in regard to a matter that was, before the date 
of the instrument, a foregone conclusion in his own mind ; 
nor need I tell the reader, that when the proofs adduced by 
the governor and company arrived in England, the loyal- 
ty and honor of Connecticut shone but the brighter 
when placed in contrast with the wickedness of her accu- 
sers. 

I need not say that Dudley and Cornbury did not forward 
their testimony, nor appear to prosecute their' complaints ; 



366 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

nor is it necessary to add, that in due time a letter arrived 
from Sir Henry Ashurst, informing the people that it was 
the opinion of the best men in the realm that they alone, sub- 
ject to the requisitions of the crown, had a right to com- 
mand the militia of the colony and dispose of its money un- 
der The Charter. 



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CHAPTER XVII. 



DEATH OP TREAT. SURRENDER OF PORT ROYAL. 

Early in the year 1707, the colonies were again alarmed 
with rumors of another French and Indian invasion. On 
the 6th of February, a council of war, made up of the gov- 
ernor and most of his council with the principal military 
gentlemen of the colony, convened at Hartford. Robert 
Treat, then deputy governor, too infirm by reason of his 
great age to be present, wrote a letter and sent it in by a 
messenger to aid the deliberations of the council. This let- 
ter gave intelligence confirming these rumors. Major Schuy- 
ler sent in similar communications. It was thought that the 
Pootatuck and Owiantuck tribes had been consulted, and 
were ready to join with the French. As these Indians were 
within our borders, and in a position to expose our western fron- 
tiers to great hazard, it was ordered that Simsbury, Water- 
bury, Woodbury, and Danbury, should speedily be fortified. 
As Waterbury had not yet recovered from the effects of the 
floods alluded to on a former page of this work, the coun- 
cil promised to use their influence with the General Assem- 
bly to get the country rates of the town abated by way of 
encouraging the inhabitants to place their houses in a defen- 
sible condition. Two gentlemen from Woodbury, Captain 
John Minor, and Mr. John Sherman, were selected to remove 
the Pootatuck and Owiantuck Indians from the places then 
occupied by them, to Stratford and Fairfield, where they 
would be in the midst of a vigilant English population 
and could be more easily watched. It was ordered, further, 
that some of the chiefs of each tribe should be carried down 
to those towns, and there kept as hostages for the good be- 
havior of their people. On the second of April, a special 



868 HISTORY OF COXXECTICUT. 

assembly was called on account of the receipt of letters 
from Governor Dudley, who proposed to send one thousand men 
against Acadie, and requested (he could not command) Con- 
necticut to join her forces with those of Massachusetts in 
the expedition. The duplicity of Dudley towards the colony 
was by no means forgotten, and the recollection of it aided 
the Assembly, I have no doubt, in coming to a conclusion not 
to respond to the call. It was argued that Connecticut had 
not been consulted as to the propriety of taking this step, 
and that she was not yet sufficiently recovered from the bur- 
den of defending the county of Hampshire, to be able to as- 
sist in an enterprise where her hand and not her counsels 
were in request. 

On the 27th of November 1707, while in the discharge of 
his duties as governor of the colony, died the Hon. Fitz 
John Winthrop, in the G9th year of his age. I have already 
given a history of his public life in my account of the ex- 
pedition against Canada, and of his services in England in 
1694, as the agent of the people to vindicate the right of the 
governor to command the militia. He was as zealous in de- 
fending that strong hold of popular liberty as his father, John 
Winthrop, had been in establishing it. Though maligned by 
some of the worst enemies that have ever beset a good man, 
he lived to see them, like Leisler and Milborn, suffer the 
penalties awarded to traitors, or like Dudley and Cornbury, 
baffled in the cross-currents of politics. He still keeps an 
honorable place in the gallery of our colonial governors, as a 
gentleman of great fidelity in all his public relations, and of 
unblemished private life. 

To fill the vacancy occasioned by his death. Deputy Gov- 
ernor Treat, convoked a special assembly on the 17th of 
December, at New Haven. It was ordered that the votes 
of both houses should be mixed and then sorted and counted, 
and that the candidate who received a majority of votes, 
should be declared governor. The ballot resulted in the 
election of the Rev. Gurdon Saltonstall, who then had charge 
of the church at New London. On the 1st of January 



GOVERNOR TREAT. 369 

1708, he signified his acceptance of the place and took the 
oath of office. The regular election that took place on the 
13th of the following May, confirmed the choice. At the same 
time, as the deputy governor, then eighty-six years old, had 
made known his desire to withdraw from the cares of public 
life, it was thought best to excuse him from further service. 
Nathan Gold was elected to fill his place. 

As the infirmities of age soon confined Governor Treat to 
the narrow circle of his own neighborhood until his death, 
that took place about two years after his resignation, I have 
thought this a proper occasion to give a slight sketch of his 
life and character. 



Robert Treat, the third governor under nie charter, and 
son of Richard Treat, one of the patentees named in it, was 
born in England, in the year* 1622. At an early age he ac- 
companied his father to America. Richard Treat — (always 
designated in our early colonial records, by the title of 
Mr. or Master,) was a gentleman of high character, and 
was among the first planters of Wethersfield. He held 
several important places of trust in the colony. Robert, 
from what cause it does not appear,* did not long remain 
with his father, but left Connecticut for Milford, during the in- 
fancy of that settlement, while yet it was a republic independ- 
ent of New Haven. At the first meeting of the planters 
of Milford, and when Treat was only eighteen years old, 
he was chosen to aid in surveying and laying out the lands 
of the new plantation. Soon afterwards he was appointed 
one of the five judges that constituted the "particular court" 
of the Commonwealth. After Milford was joined with New 
Haven in 1644, he soon became known in the colony as a 
gentleman of good culture and marked abilities. In 1661, 
he was elected a magistrate and remained in the magistracy 

* It is probable that Mr. Prudden, who preached in "Wethersfield during a part 
of the year 1639, and had proved very acceptable to a part of the people there, 
may have induced Mr. Treat to remove to INIilford, as he did some other planters. 
Certain it is that Treat was in Milford as early as 1639, as appears by the Milford 
records. 

24 



•^i^i. 



870 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

until 1664, when he decHned any longer to hold office under 
a government that he felt to be already tottering to its fall, 
crushed by the weight of debts and taxes, and hemmed in by 
a troop of adverse circumstances that, like a beleaguering 
army, cut off at once all supplies and all hope. It was main- 
ly through his influence that Milford left the jurisdiction of 
New Haven, and placed herself in the keeping of Connecti- 
cut. He was the only man then living in the colony of 
New Haven, who had at the same time the moral courage 
and the resolute will successfully to meet the unabated oppo- 
sition of Davenport to the union, that could hardly have been 
effected as it was, had he failed to unite his fearless counsels 
with the persuasive admonitions of Winthrop. 
\-^ -In 1670, he was appointed major of the Connecticut troops, 
and in 1675, he was raised to the rank of colonel. His gallantry 
and bravery — evinced throughout the whole course of Philips' 
war, from its first stages, in which he was asrain and ao;ain 
chiefly instrumental in saving from total destruction some of 
the finest border towns in Massachusetts, down to the fatal 
hour when, with the Connecticut troops, he passed from the 
rear to the van of Winslow's army, and led the forlorn hope 
across the bridge and in front of the block-house whence the 
murderous fire of Philip's sharp-shooters hadmore than once 
driven the forces of Massachusetts — are without a parallel 
in our history, save in the life of Mason who preceded him, 
or Putnam who came after him. In 1676, he was elected 
deputy governor, and in 1683, governor of the colony. He filled 
the executive office for fifteen years, when he declined any 
longer to act in that capacity, and Gen. Fitz John Winthrop 
was chosen to supply his place. There existed between 
Treat and John Winthrop the most cordial friendship, grow- 
ing out of the admiration that each felt for the character and 
abilities of the other, and also on account of the part that 
they respectively took, the one in procuring the charter, the 
other in vindicating its jurisdiction and in preserving it from 
the violence of its enemies. 

Winthrop died before the clouds that had begun to gather 



I 



GOVERNOR TREAT. 371 

in his day had darkened into the storm ; Treat lived to with- 
stand the fiercest bolts of delegated power. 

Governor Treat was not only a man of high courage, but 
he was one of the most cautious military leaders, and possess- 
ed a quick sagacity united with a breadth of understanding 
that enabled him to see at a glance the most complex rela- 
tions that surrounded the field of battle. Nor did he excel 
only as a hero : his moral courage and his inherent force of 
character shone with the brightest lustre in the executive 
chair or legislative chamber, when stimulated by the opposi- 
tion and malevolence of such men as Andross. In private 
life he was no less esteemed. He was a planter of that 
hospitable order that adorned New England in an age when 
hospitality was accounted a virtue, and when the term gen- 
tlemen was something more than an empty title. His house 
was always open to the poor and friendless, and wherever 
he gave his hand he gave his heart. Hence, whether march- 
ing to the relief of, Springfield, or extending his charities to 
Whalley and Goffe, while he drowned a tear of sympathy in 
the lively sparkle of fun and of anecdote, he was always 
welcome, always beloved. His quick sensibilities, his playful 
humor, his political wisdom, his firmness in the midst of dan- 
gers, and his deep piety, have still a traditionary fame in the 
neighborhood where he spent the brief portion of his time 
that he was allowed to devote to the culture of the domestic 
and social virtues. He died at Milford, in the 89th year of 
his age.* 

* Governor Treat, was a son of Richard Treat, Esq., of Wethersfield, who was 
one of the patentees of Connecticut. Tlie governor married Jane, daughter of 
Edmund Tapp, Esq., of Milford, who died April 8, 1703. He then married the 
widow Elizabeth Bryan, who died in about three months after their union. The 
children of Governor Treat, were 1, Samuel, who graduated at Harvard College, 
16C9, was settled in the ministry at Eastham, Mass.. and died in 1717, leaving a 
numerous family ; 2, John, who died young ; 3, Robert, who settled in Milford, 
and was a magistrate ; 4, Joseph, also of Milford, who became a justice of the 
quorum ; 5, Mary, who married Rev. Samuel Mather, minister at Windsor ; 6, 
Abigail, who married Rev. Mr. Andrew, of ]\Iilford ; and Anne, who was the 
mother of the Hon. Robert Treat Paine, one of the Signers of the Declaration of 
Independence from Massachusetts. Lambert ; Rev. Dr. Chapin, &o. 



872 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

His eventful life, that began in the early part of one cen- 
tury, and ended in the first quarter of another, was mild and 
tranquil at its close, beaming smilingly upon the world as a 
summer sunset lingers upon the horizon to light up with its 
warm blending of colors the vapors that herald the coming 
of darkness. 

The refusal of Connecticut to furnish her quota of troops 
in answer to the call of Governor Dudley, delayed the con- 
templated expedition against Canada, but did not defeat it. 
At the May session of the General Assembly, 1709, a letter 
from the queen was presented and read, advising the colony 
of the plan of the campaign. It was resolved to reduce the 
French in Canada, Acadie, and Newfoundland. The con- 
tents of letters from the Earl of Sunderland, were also made 
known to the legislature, in which the number of troops and 
the amount of supplies to be provided by each of the colonies 
were specified. Connecticut was ordered to raise 350 men, 
and the other colonies lying east of Connecticut, were to pro- 
vide an aggregate of 1,200 men, with transports, pilots, and 
provisions, for three months' service. The earl acquainted 
the colonies with her majesty's design to send a squadron of. 
ships to Boston by the middle of May. This armament was 
expected to resume the old attempt upon Quebec. But 
this was not the full burden that was to be placed on the 
shoulders of the colony. 

It was further proposed that Connecticut, New York, and 
New Jersey, and the southern colonies should raise 1,500 
men to cross the country and take possession of Montreal. 
With her usual alacrity, Connecticut raised her share of the 
troops for the land army, and placed them under the com- 
mand of Colonel Whiting. The Assembly, by a formal vote, 
also thanked the queen for her kind care of the colonies, in 
taking such active measures to remove a dangerous enemy. 
As early as the 20th of May, the provincial armament was 
ready to sail for Quebec. Francis Nicholson was placed at 
the head of the land army. He was directed to march as 
far as Wood Creek, and there await the coming of the fleet 



[1709.] FIEST BILLS OF CREDIT. 373 

that was expected at Boston, when he was to press forward 
and reach Montreal, so that the attack upon that place might 
be made simultaneously with that upon Quebec. Not only 
did the colonies raise their respective quotas of men, but 
such was the zeal of the inhabitants to engage in the war, that 
many volunteer companies were raised and sent on to join the 
regular troops, and more than one hundred batteaux and 
as many birch canoes were constructed to transport the army 
across the lake. Three forts, several block-houses and store- 
houses, were built for the protection of the army and of the 
frontier. All these preparations only resulted in a useless 
expense to the colonies. The fleet, so long and anxiously 
waited for, did not come from England, and in the fall, after 
disease had thinned the ranks of his army and threatened 
utterly to depopulate his camp, Nicholson marched back 
to Albany. One quarter of those who had been placed un- 
der his command were dead. Connecticut alone lost ninety 
men. The colony was so straightened for means by this 
bootless enterprise that the Assembly was compelled to issue 
Bills of Credit* to the amount of eight thousand pounds. 
This was the first time that Connecticut ever resorted to an 
issue of paper money, though she has since done it more than 
once, not merely for her own protection, but for the salva- 
tion of the Union, for which she afterwards fought with such 
valor. Although the colonies were deeply disappointed at 

* It may interest the reader to know the form of these Bills of Credit, and 1 
subjoin an exact copy of one, taken from the Colonial Records : 

"No. ( ) 20s. 

" This Indented Bill of Twenty Shillings due from the colony of Connecticut, 
in New England, to the possessor thereof, shall be in value equal to money, and 
ehall be accordingly accepted by the Treasurer, and Receivers subordinate to him, 
in all public payments, and for any stock at any time in the Treasury. 

"Hartford, July the Twelfth, A.D., 1709. 
" By order of the General Court." 

In connection with this provision, it was enacted, that these bills should be is- 
sued from the treasury as money, but should be received in payments at one shil- 
ling on the pound better than money. One half only were to be signed and issued 
at first, and the other half were to remain unsigned, until it should be found 
necessary to put them in circulation. 



87-i HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

the failure of a scheme that had thrown upon them such 
heavy burdens, yet their situation was too critical to allow 
them time to brood over the past. The French still retained 
their old Indian alliances, and were making all the efforts 
that they could to alienate from the English the waning 
affections of the five nations. Could the enemy but bring 
about this result they well knew that the whole English fron- 
tier would be in their power, and the settlements along its 
entire line would be again exposed to the sickening atroci- 
ties of an Indian border war. These the colonies had al- 
ready experienced, and the recollection was enough to stimu- 
late them to the most vigorous exertions. 

That they might hit upon some uniform plan of operation, 
a congress of governors was held at Rehoboth, Massachu- 
setts, in the beginning of October, to deliberate upon the con- 
dition of the country and advise what should be done. 
General Nicholson, Colonel Vetch, and other experienced 
military gentlemen, were invited to attend upon the Con- 
gress, and give it the benefit of their advice. The result 
of their deliberations was an address to the queen, setting 
forth the harmonious relations that subsisted between the 
colonies, the loyalty that prevailed among the people, and 
the necessity of adding the French colonies in North 
America to the other dominions of her empire. The address 
ended with a petition that her majesty would send out an ar- 
mament which, with the provincial troops, would be equal to 
such an enterprise. 

At the session of the General Assembly in October, Gov- 
ernor Saltonstall made known the doings of the executive 
convention and caused the address to be read. The 
legislature approved of its terms and adopted a similar 
one in behalf of Connecticut. Governor Saltonstall was 
appointed agent for the colony to present it to the queen.* 

In 1708, twenty-five inhabitants of Norwalk united in 
purchasing of Catoonah, the chief sachem, and other Indians, 
a large tract of land lying between that town and Danbury. 
* Colonial Records, MS. 



[1710.] QUEEN ANNE AND THE FIVE SACHEMS. 375 

The deed is dated on the 30th of September of that year, 
and at the ensuing session of the General Assembly, it was 
incorporated as a town by the name of Ridgefield. John 
Belden, Samuel Keeler, Matthew Seymour, and Matthias 
St. John, were among the chief proprietors and settlers. 

That the queen might be more easily induced to send the 
aid that was so much sought for, Colonel Schuyler, one of 
the most wealthy gentlemen in the province of New York, 
whose whole heart was -in the project, resolved to approach 
her majesty's confidence by exciting her curiosity and play- 
ing upon her imagination. At his own expense, therefore, 
he fitted out a vessel, and, with five Indian sachems in his 
charge, representing the five nations who had withstood the 
tempting ofTers of the French, he sailed for England.* He 
carried also an address from the Assembly of New York, 
begging for the interposition of the crown. 

The queen readily granted an interview to Colonel Schuy- 
ler, and the swarthy deputation that had accompanied him, 
and the chiefs were received with such ceremonials as 
suited the rank of the respective parties. These children 
of the forest, erect and unabashed in the presence of royal- 
ty, made a very favorable impression upon the mind of the 
queen. In their simple, wild way, they gave her a history 
of the part that they had taken in the struggles with the 
French, and what faithful allies they had proved to her chil- 
dren across the water ; with what readiness they had sub- 
mitted to the loss of their best warriors, and with what de- 
light they had received the intelligence that so great a sove- 
reign as she was, was about to send ships and men to subdue 
the common enemy. They said that as one man they had 
hung up the kettle and taken up the hatchet in aid of Nichol- 
son ; but when they found that their great queen, on account 
of some weighty matters at home, had kept back her ships, 
their hearts were heavy, lest the enemy, who had before 
feared them, should now think that they were too weak 
to make war upon them. They said that the reduc- 
* Bancroft, Trumbull, Brodhead. 



376 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

tion of Canada was very necessary to them, as tliey could 
not occupy their huntipg-grounds with any security as things 
then were ; and intimated that, should the queen be unmind- 
ful of them, they must either quit their country and seek 
other places of abode, or remain neutral — neither of which 
alternatives would accord with their inclinations.* 

This deputation, with the several addresses before alluded 
to, met with a gracious reception, and the applicants were 
led to hope that an armament would at once be sent to re- 
duce Canada. 

In July 1710, advices arrived in New England, that a fleet 
under the charge of Lord Shannon, was soon to set sail ; 
and in anticipation of it, Nicholson, with several armed 
ships and some transports, left England in the spring for the 
American coast. 

These preparations, however, proved not to be designed 
for the reduction of Canada, but only to get possession of 
Port Royal and Nova Scotia. 

On the 14th of August, a special assembly was convened 
on account of a letter addressed by the queen to the colony, 
calling for troops and supplies. In debt as she was, and suf- 
fering as her people still were from the heavy loss of life that 
befell the army at Wood Creek, Connecticut voted to raise 
three hundred men in obedience to the requisition. No time 
was lost in procuring vessels and sailors for the expedition, 
and in four weeks our quota of troops were safely transport- 
ed to Boston. 

By the 18th of September, the provincial fleet was ready 
to sail. It consisted of thirty-six ships of war and trans- 
ports, under command of General Nicholson. On the 24th, 
the armament reached Port Royal, and landed without oppo- 
sition. On the 21st of October, three small batteries of two 
mortars, and twenty-four cohorns,were brought to bear upon 

* Smith's Hist. New York, i. 121, 123; Holmes, i. 501, 502. Trumbull, i. 
437. These Indian sachems attracted great attention in England. Sir Charles 
Cotterel conducted them, in two coaches, to St. James's ; and the Lord Chamber- 
lain introduced them into the royal presence. 



[1711.] CONNECTICUT TH.4NKS THE QUEEN. 377 

the fort, assisted by a bomb ship named the Star that proved 
very effective. The next day, the commander of the fort 
capitulated. Thus, unaided by the Enghsh fleet, Port Royal 
fell into the hands of the provincials with the loss of only 
about forty men, tvv^enty-six of whom were drowned by the 
wreck of one of the transports in the service of Connecticut. 

Flushed with the anticipation of new conquests, Nichol- 
son sailed for England in the fall, to renew his solicitations 
for a fleet to prosecute the war. In June 1711, he again ar- 
rived in Boston with new requisitions from the queen, com- 
manding the several colonies to raise fresh troops, and with 
the assurance that an English fleet v/as about to sail for 
America. 

A convention of governors w'as convoked at New Lon- 
don, on account of this intelligence. Sixteen days after the 
arrival of Nicholson, the expected fleet made its appearance ; 
but strange to say, it was almost totally destitute of provis- 
ions. This fact added to the suspicions before entertained 
by the colonies, that the object of the English government 
was not the reduction of Canada. It appeared doubtful 
whether the requisite supplies could be procured in the short 
space of time that would be allowed for that purpose. On 
the other hand, should the preparations come short of the 
demand, and the expedition prove unsuccessful, it was 
thought that the whole blame of the failure would fall upon 
New England. The colonies, therefore, put forth the ut- 
most exertions to provide for the armament. 

The General Assembly of Connecticut was in session; 
when the fleet arrived at Boston, and speedily voted to raise i 
three hundred and sixty men, to procure four months pro- 
visions for them, and a vessel to transport them to Albany. 
At the same time a letter was addressed to the queen, 
proffering the thanks of the colony for her tender care of its 
interests, and expressing a great deal of gratitude for all 
that her majesty had done, and, so far as can now be seen, 
for much that she had neglected to do.* 
* Colonial Records, MS. 



878 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. ■ 

Witli such alacrity did the colonies address themselves to 
the preparation of this two-fold enterprise, that in about a 
montli the land army and the fleet were both in readiness. 
On the 30th of July, the armament, consisting of fifteen 
men-of-war, forty transports, six store-ships, and a train of 
artillery, such as had never before been sent to the American 
coast, sailed out of Boston harbor for Canada. Aside from 
the naval forces, it carried a land army of seven thousand 
men, made up of five regiments from England and Flanders, 
and two regiments from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and 
New Hampshire. Sir Hovenden Walker was admiral of 
the fleet, while thfi land forces were under command of 
Brigadier General Hill, brother to Mrs. Masham, the favor- 
ite of the queen. On the same day. General Nicholson be- 
gan his march for Albany. His army consisted of four 
thousand men from Connecticut, New York, and New Jer- 
sey. Colonel William Whiting, had the immediate com- 
mand of the Connecticut forces ;* Colonel Schuyjer those 
of New York, and Colonel Ingoldsby, those of New Jersey. 

Admiral Walker reached the mouth of the St. Lawrence 
with his fleet on the 14th of August. That he might wait 
for transports to come up, he put into the Bay of Gaspe on 
the 18th, where he lay at anchor until the 20th, when he 
sailed out of the bay. On the 22d, a dismal prospect pre- 
sented itself. With a high south-easterly wind to contend 
against, without soundings, out of sight of land, and en- 
veloped in a thick fog, the fleet appeai-ed to be at the mercy 
of the elements. With the hope that the wind would drift 
them into the channel, the pilots advised that the ships 
should be brought to, with their heads to the southward. 
Even after this precaution was taken, the ships still drifted 
toward the dangerous rocks of the north shore. 

Just as the admiral was going to retire for the night, the 
captain of his ship went below and told him in alarm that he 
could see land. As if not satisfied with the speed that was 
already hurrying the fleet to perdition. Walker gave orders 

■ * Colonial Records, MS. 



[1711.] OBSTINACY OF WALKER. 379 

that the heads of the ships should be brought to the north. 
Captain Goddard, of the land army, flew to the cabin and 
begged the admiral to go on deck and see for himsef Walk- 
er only laughed. As the ships drew nearer the gulf that 
yawned for them, Goddard again sought the cabin. 

"For the Lord's sake," cried he, "come on deck, or we 
shall certainly be drowned. I see breakers all around us !" 

Walker, with as much leisure as if he had been preparing 
to write one of his own stupid dispatches, put on his gown 
and slippers, " and coming upon deck," to use his own lan- 
guage, "I found what he told me was true ! " 

He might easily find out the truth of it by the light of the 
moon that just then pierced through the mists and showed 
the Egg Islands to the leeward, with the white waves break- 
ing over them. 

The admiral then, for the first time, opened his eyes and 
consented that the advice of the pilots should be followed. 

Eight of the British transports were cast away, and of the 
seventeen hundred English officers and soldiers that were on 
board of them, eight hundred and eighty-four were lost. Ad- 
miral, Walker, and the other principal officers, were saved, 
by trusting to their anchors, from being dashed against the 
rocks.* 

As soon as the fleet could be extricated it sailed for Span- 
ish river bay, but as the wind had shifted and blew stifly 
from the east, it was eight days before the entire armament 
arrived there. Here a council of war was held, the result of 
which was, that the admiral soon after weighed anchor for 
Portsmouth, England. Of course, General Nicholson had 
nothing to do but to retrace his steps. f 

The failure of this third attempt to subdue the Canadas 
was of course charged upon the American pilots, who after- 
wards made oath that their advice was not followed, and, 
with equal propriety, upon the tardiness of the colonies, who 

* See Hutchinson, ii. 180 ; also, Baueroft and Trumbull, 
t Smith's New York, ii. 128, 130 ; Belknap's Kew Hampshire, i. 335 ; Trum- 
bull, i. 441, 442 ; Hutchinson, ii. 190, 198 ; Holmes, i, 505. 



880 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

in five weeks had raised and provisioned two armies of their 
own, besides providing supplies for the Enghsh fleet. Al- 
though the loss of life had fallen chiefly upon the English 
soldiers, the colonies still reflected with chagrin that the 
French flag yet floated from the heights of Quebec. 

During the period covered by this chapter, several new 
townships were settled and organized, in addition to those 
already noted. 

At the May session of the General Assembly, 1707, 
Hebron was incorporated. The settlement of this place was 
begun about three years previous to the above date. The 
first settlers of the town were William Shipman, Timothy 
Phelps, Caleb Jones, Samuel Filer, Stephen Post, Jacob 
Root, Samuel Curtis, Edward Sawyer, Joseph Youngs, and 
Benoni Trumbull. The}^ were from Windsor, Saybrook, 
Long Island, and Northampton.* 

In May of the following year, it was ordered that a town- 
ship should be laid out south-east of Woodstock, eight miles 
in length and six in breadth. The inhabitants on this tract 
were vested with town privileges, and the town was named 
Killingly. Among the early settlers whose descendants still 
inhabit the vicinity, were Messrs. Joseph Cady, James Dan- 
ielson, Sampson Howe, and Ephraim Warren. 

Newtown, in the present county of Fairfield, was incor- 
porated at the October session, 1711. 

A tract of country formerly granted by Joshua, sachem of 
the Mohegans, lying north of Lebanon and west of Mans- 
field, was laid out about this time, and the town was incorpora- 
ted by the name of Coventry at the October session, 1711. 

A settlement was commenced in 1707, at a place called 
Weatinoge, on the Housatonick river. The Boardmans, 
Bostwicks, Gaylords, Nobles, Canfields, Camps, Hines, Bucks, 
Warners, &c., were among the early families who still retain 

* Hebron is noted as the birth-place of many eminent men, among whom I 
may name, Dr. Benjamin Trumbull, the venerable Historian of Connecticut, 
Governor Peters, of this State, Governor Palmer, of Vermont, and Lieut. Gov- 
ernor Root, of New York. 



[1713.] POMFRET INCORPORATED. 881 

an honorable position in the place. The town was incor- 
porated and named New Milford, in October 1712. The 
famous Moravian missionary, Count Zinzendorf, established 
a mission among the Indians at this point, 

Pomfret, was incorporated in 1713. Some of the lands 
here had been settled upon as early as 1686. Among the 
early proprietors were Major James Fitch, Lieutenant Wil- 
liam Ruggles, Messrs. John Gore, John Pierpont, Benjamin 
Sabin, John Grosvenor, Nathan Wilson, Samuel Craft, 
Samuel and John Ruggles, and Joseph Griffin. Major 
General Israel Putnam, of the revolutionary army was a re- 
sident of this town.* 

* For a more particular account of the above towns — and indeed of all the 
towns in the State, I take pleasure in referring the reader to Barber's " Historical 
Collections of Connecticut." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

"WAR WITH THE EASTERN INDIANS. 

Although the Treaty of Utrecht, bearing date April 1st, 
1713,* had restored peace to the European powers, yet it did 
not entirely put an end to the troubles existing in America. 
The French Jesuits, who had extended their influence into 
the region lying to the eastward of New England, lost no 
opportunity to intensify the prejudices and hatred of the In- 
dian tribes who were under their control. On the other 
hand, the encroaching spirit of the English colonies, impel- 
ling their people to make new acquisitions of territory by 
means that could not always be justified, helped to quicken 
the embers of discontent into a flame. 

Sebastian Ralle, the spiritual father of the Indians at Nor- 
ridgewock, and who had established a large Indian church 
there, was accused by the English who lived on the frontiers 
with fermenting disturbances among the natives, and es- 
pecially in relation to that most delicate matter, the tenure of 
their lands. Soon after Governor Shute entered upon his 
duties as governor of Massachusetts, he was induced, from 
the complaints that he heard from the eastern border settle- 
ments, to try what could be effected with the Indians there 
by treaty. With this view, he met the chiefs by appointment 
at Arrowsick Island, and after some delays succeeded in re- 
newing the treaty of 1713.t 

This settlement of their hostilities does not seem to have 
been acceptable to Father Ralle, who was supposed to have 
done what he could to render it inoperative, and to incite the 

* By this treaty between Great Britain and France, the latter surrendered to 
the British government, the Bay and Straits of Hudson, the island of St. Chris- 
topher, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. 

t A printed copy of this treaty is in the Library of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society. It bears date (as renewed) " George Town, in Arrowsick Island, Aug. 
9, 1717." 




Zivg byLtCHJDinan from a crayon sketch byRembrandl Peade in the possession of Gco.Gibbs.Esq^. 



r--/9^^^^ 



[1720.] SHUTE AJSTD THE PEOPLE. 383 

Indians to acts of violence. Whether this is true or false, it 
is certain that the Indians were constantly depredating upon 
the English settlements, and it appears to be equally so, that 
they acted not without provocation. 

In the year 1720, a party of Indians made a sudden attack 
upon Canso, a settlement in Nova Scotia, killed several of 
the inhabitants and plundered the place. A number of 
Frenchmen from Cape Breton, acted in concert and carried 
off the booty in their vessels. A reprisal followed, and this 
was succeeded by other depredations. The English were 
said to have sustained a loss of about £20,000, which the 
government at Louisbourg refused to make good, on the 
ground that the plunderers were not French subjects.* 

The troubles at Canso, alarmed the people of eastern 
Massachusetts, and Colonel Walton, with a party of soldiers, 
was sent out to defend that part of the country. But as the 
disturbances still continued. Governor Shute, who had been 
in favor of an amicable settlement of these difficulties that 
had grown doubtless out of a disturbance of land titles dur- 
ing the war ending in the capture of Port Royal, now 
ordered Walton to inform the Indians that commissioners 
should be sent to determine all differences. The popular 
sentiment in Massachusetts was, however, opposed to a nego- 
tiation, and before the terms could be agreed on, the General 
Court was called and the house resolved that one hundred 
and fifty men should march forthwith to Norridgewock, and, 
sword in hand, compel the Indians there to make full restitu- 
tion for all the mischief that they had done. It was also re- 
solved that the sheriff of York county should have a war- 
rant to arrest Father Ralle and bring him to Boston ; and 
that if that officer could not find him, the Indians should 
take him and deliver him up. It was also, radically enough, 
determined that if the Indians should refuse to betray their 
friend in this way, they should themselves be apprehended 
and brought as prisoners to Boston for punishment. f The 

* nutchinson, ii. 217, 218; Trumbull, ii. 60. 
t Hutchinson, ii. 218. 



384 HISTOEY OF CONNECTICUT. 

governor and council, foreseeing tiiat this summary proceed- 
ing would end in a vexatious war, refused to concur with 
the house.* 

Thus the matter remained unsettled, until the next year, 
when about two hundred Indians with two French Jesuits, 
came down to Georgetown, on Arrowsick Island, and left a 
letter for the governor, filled with bitter complaints against 
the English. The old subject matter of complaint, the title 
to their lands, was the burden of the letter. Father Ralle 
was understood to be the author of the charges contained in 
it, and was said to have filled the hearts of the Indians with 
resentment. 

While affairs remained in this uncertain condition, the 
sachem of the Norridgewocks died, and a new chief suc- 
ceeded him of a more pacific character. Through his influ- 
ence and the advice of the old counselor^, hostages were 
soon after sent to Boston as pledges for the future good be- 
havior of the tribe, and as a guarranty for the liquidation of 
the old demands for damages. Still Ralle was thought to be 
active in fermenting disturbances and instigating the Indians 
to war. Mutual accusations followed, until at last the Eng- 
lish were so inflamed that at a meeting of the General Court 
of Massachusetts, on the 27th of August, it was resolved that 
three hundred men should be sent to the Indian head-quar- 
ters, to demand that the Jesuits should be surrendered up to 
the English. This demand was to be enforced by severe 
penalties. The council concurred and the governor reluc- 
• tantly consented. Still, as he had the Indian hostages in 
keeping at the castle, he issued no order for the raising of 
the troops. Not long after this, however, the hostages es- 
caped, and the governor gave orders for levying the soldiers. 
These orders were countermanded as soon as the hostages 
were taken and sent back to Boston. f 

In November, the General Court again met, when the 
house complained loudly of the governor for these delays. 

* Trumbull ; Hutchinson ; Bancroft. 
t Trumbull. 



[1722.] UNION OF THE EASTERN" TRIBES. 885 

Reluctantly the council again consented that a party of sol- 
diers should be sent to Norridgewock to enforce the demands 
of the court. 

When this party arrived at the principal village occupied 
by the tribe, not an Indian was to be found. They had been 
apprised of the coming of the English, and had fled into the 
woods, with Father Ralle, the chief object of pursuit, under 
their protection. Although disappointed in not obtaining 
possession of his person, the invading party succeeded in 
finding his books and papers, which they seized and carried 
off with them. 

The Indians did not forget this act of violence, and in 
June of the next year a party of sixty warriors with twenty 
canoes, dropped suddenly into Merry Meeting Bay, and took 
nine families prisoners. Several incursions of a like charac- 
ter, though wanting the horrors usually attending a savage 
invasion, followed at brief intervals, and still showed how 
restless was the spirit of revenge that prompted them. Other 
Englishmen were taken captive from time to time. Finally, 
emboldened by success, the Indians burned the village of 
Brunswick, near Casco Bay. This led to a formal declara- 
tion of war on the part of Massachusetts. 

The Penobscots, the Cape Sable Indians, and those at St. 
John's, and St. Francois, ' now joined with the Norridge- 
wocks, and mustered their braves for a bloody war. United 
as they were, they seemed likely to prove a terrible enemy. 
In July, they made a descent upon the coast, surprised Can- 
so and other harbors, and seized seventeen English fishing 
vessels. The Indians had learned to manage a sail with skill, 
and could use fire-arms. They now began to kill and scalp 
their prisoners in cold blood. They gathei'ed in larger num- 
bers, too, as the war advanced. In September about five 
hundred of them made an attempt upon the village and fort 
at Arrowsick Island. The inhabitants flew from the village 
to the fort only to see their houses laid in ashes. It was not 
an easy task to defend the fort itself.* 

•- * Holmes ; Hutchinson : Trumbull. " 

25 



386 HISTOEY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Now that war was declared, and its terrible signals began 
to beacon up along the coast and river settlements, shedding 
a baleful light upon the fortifications that even French valor 
had not been able to keep from the English, the people of 
the eastern border forgot their hatred of Father Ralle for 
awhile to reflect upon their own dangers. New York, too, 
beoan to be alarmed. Governor Shute, anxious to avert the 
calamity that he had used his best efforts to prevent, now 
addressed a letter to Governor Saltonstall, asking for men 
and supplies to carry on the war. He was imprudent enough 
to suggest, that if Connecticut declined to act in the matter, 
a portion of her militia should be put under his command. 
Nothing could have been more impolitic than such an allu- 
sion. It brought the images of Joseph Dudley and Lord 
Cornbury in a moment before the General Assembly. Un- 
luckily, too, Governor Burnet of New York had sent a let- 
ter seconding the request of Shute. 

With great unanimity, both Houses resolved that the mis- 
chief done by a few eastern Indians, was not worthy to be 
dignified with the name of an invasion, and did not call for 
a general rally of the colonies from New Hampshire to Vir- 
ginia, to defend it. With much stateliness the legislature 
therefore declined to render any assistance beyond that of 
sending a detachment of fifty men into the new county of 
Hampshire, and putting the border towns of Connecticut in 
a posture of defense.* The Assembly was by no means satis- 
fied that the existing state of affairs was at all necessary, or 
that the part that Massachusetts had taken in it was law- 
ful. 

In November, the General Court of Massachusetts con- 
vened, and appointed commissioners to treat with the six 
nations. They were instructed to offer these Indians a pre- 
mium for the scalps of the eastern Indians. The court resum- 
ed at this session the old quarrel with the governor, and finally 
succeeded in making him so unhappy that he embarked for 
England. He does not appear to have been a very astute 

* Colonial Records, MS. 



[1725.] CONNECTICUT REFUSES TO FIGHT. 387 

politician, but was certainly insulted and abused for doing 
what in all probability was right, in regard to a war that 
would not have broken out had his pacific and equitable 
counsels been followed.* 

I pass by the details of Colonel Westbrook's expedition, 
the destruction of the church, castle, and village upon the 
Penobscot river, too like an Indian depredation to have owed 
its origin to a christian people, and the equally painful recital 
of the destruction of the village of Norridgewock, by Moul- 
ton, where only fifty of the inhabitants escaped the general 
massacre that resulted in the wanton murder of Father Ralle, 
the fruit of bigotry and revenge, and in the cruel butchery 
of the wife and helpless children of an Indian chief whose 
worst crime was, that he had killed a Mohawk while invad- 
ing his dwelling ; nor need I speak of the shameful maraud 
of John Lovell, desecrating the banks of the Penobscot, and 
the shores of Winnepesiaukee in quest of scalps, for every one 
of which, the General Court of Massachusetts had offered the 
the stimulating reward of one hundred pounds. I will only 
say, Connecticut regarded the war itself as unnecessary, and 
shrunk with horror from the barbarities that their too ex- 
cited and deluded neighbors permitted to be perpetrated. 

That she did nothing in this unhappy war beyond the de- 
fense of her own frontiers, and those of the county of 
Hampshire, solicited, as she was, again and again, affords an 
excellent illustration of the temperance of her statesmen, 
and the christian spirit that dictated her counsels. 

The war cost her several thousand pounds, but as she 
acted solely on the defensive, not a single life was sacrificed 
in the colony. 

Notwithstanding the continual excitement and alarm, and 
the exorbitant taxation, consequent upon these expeditions, 
the older towns in the colony continued to send out fresh re- 

* Gov. Samuel Shute had served as lieut. colonel under the duke of Marlbo- 
rough. He arrived hi Boston with his commission as governor of Massachusetts, 
Oct. 4, 1716; and sailed for England, Jan. 1, 1723. He died in 1742, aged 
88 years. 



888 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

cruits to subdue the forests and form new settlements in the 
more remote wilderness. 

In 1706, a few pioneers had established themselves upon 
certain lands in Ashford ; and the number of settlers had so 
increased, that the town was incorporated in 1714. The 
brave Colonel Thomas Knowlton, of revolutionary renown, 
was a native of Ashford. 

Tolland was incorporated in 1715. It was laid out six 
miles square. The township was rough, and a large part of 
it was claimed by persons who were legatees of Uncas, the 
Mohegan sachem. These circumstances retarded the growth 
of the settlement, so that there were but twenty-eight fami- 
lies in the town in 1720. The names of some of the early 
settlers were, Stearns, Chapman, Grant, West, Carpenter, 
Dimoek, and Aborne. 

The township of Stafford, was surveyed in 1718, and the 
settlement began during the next spring. At the May ses- 
sion of the Assembly, 1719, the unsold lands in that town 
were ordered to be disposed of, " and the proceeds to be paid 
into the treasury of Yale College." The principal settlers 
were, Mr. Robert White and Mr. Matthew Thompson, from 
Europe ; the Warners, from Hadley ; the Blodgets, from 
Woborn ; Cornelius Davis, from Haverhill ; Daniel Colburn, 
from Dedham ; John Pasco, from Enfield ; Josiah Standish, 
from Preston ; Benjamin Rockwell, from Windsor ; and 
Joseph Orcutt, from Weymouth. 

The settlement at Bolton, commenced in 1716, but the 
first town meeting was not held until 1720. In October of 
the last mentioned year, the town was incorporated. 
The first settlers were of the names of Pitkin, Talcott, 
Loomis, Bissell, Strong, Olcott, and Bishop. 

In 1720, a few settlers took up their abode upon the "west- 
ern lands," at a place called " Bantam." During the follow- 
ing year, several purchasers moved on to the tract from 
Hartford and Windsor. The town was surveyed, and laid 
out into sixty equal divisions or rights, three of which were 
reserved for public uses. The act of incorporation was 



[1724.] LITCHFIELD. 889 

passed by the General Assembly at the May session, 1724. 
Among the first settlers whose descendants still remain in the 
town, were those bearing the names of Marsh, Buel, Baldwin, 
Birge, Beebe, Culver, Catlin, Goodwin, Gibbs, Garrett, Gris- 
wold, Kilbourn, Mason, Phelps, Peck, Stoddard, Sanford, 
Smedley, Webster, and Woodruff. This town at the time, 
of its incorporation, took the name of Litchfield, and has 
since 1751, been the shire town of a large county. It has 
also a history of its own that will unfold itself durins 
the progress of this work. Its future reputation could 
hardly have been prophecied from its humble infancy in the 
midst of a wilderness hardly yet subdued. 



CHAPTER XIX 



WAE WITH FRANCE AND SPAIN. CAPTURE OP LOUISBOURG. 

The reign of George I. was now over, and his son, one of 
the most able monarchs of modern times, was just begin- 
ning to evince the strong intelHgence and keen love of war 
that was in a few years to add so much to the territory and 
renown of the British empire. 

In the fall of 1739, it appeared obvious to the General 
Assembly of Connecticut, that certain differences then dis- 
turbing the amicable relations of England and Spain, must 
soon lead to a war between the two powers. The Assembly, 
therefore, took speedy measures to place the colony in an 
attitude of defense. It was ordered that ten cannon, with 
suitable ammunition, should be provided, to increase the 
strength of the battery at New London, and that a well 
armed sloop of war should be employed to guard the coast. 
An order was further made to supply the feeble and remote 
towns with the means of protecting themselves, and the 
militia were formed into thirteen regiments — each regiment 
being ofRcered by a colonel, a lieutenant-colonel, and a 
major.* 

War meanwhile was declared against Spain, and the min- 
istry, glad to be rid of a clamorous and by no means insig- 
nificant opponent, and to assail the enemy in a weak point, 
resolved on sending Admiral Vernon upon an expedition 
where he would have an opportunity of making good some of 
his stately declarations as to the exploits that he could per- 
form if he were but invested with the command of a few 
ships. The Spanish West Indies, Porto Bello, Carthagena 

* At the same session (Oct., 1739,) the governor was made captain general, 
and the deputy governor was made lieutenant-general of the militia of Con- 
necticut. 




M Aj ,. Qmw. id a^tU) Wo (O s t]E] 




HolUstei-sHistc.i 



[1740.] PREPARATIONS AGAINST SPAIN. 891 

and Cuba, were to be the principal objects aimed at by the 
government, and requisitions were made upon the colonies 
to furnish troops for this exciting theatre of naval opera- 
tions. The design was to raise four provincial regiments to 
be transported to Jamaica, where they were to be united 
with the main body of the British forces. The colonies 
were to provide all necessaries for the men thus raised by 
them, until they should reach this rendezvous. They were 
further expected to pay all the expenses of the transporta- 
tion. As the House of Brunswick owed its accession to the 
throne, and its perpetuity, to the fact that it was understood, 
to be the champion of protestantism, it is quite probable that- 
the zeal manifested by England as well as by Connecticut in 
this war, was in part owing to the fact that Spain was a 
catholic power. 

In July, 1740, a special assembly was called, and measures 
were very readily taken to answer to his majesty's demands 
to help forward the " expedition against the territories of the 
catholic king, in the West Indies."* 

As soon as the requisition reached the governor of Con- 
necticut, he issued his proclamation making known the 
will of the crown, and calling upon those who w^ere willing 
to volunteer for the service, to hold themselves in readiness. 
Committees were now appointed to superintend the military 
preparations, and to take the names of such as had decided 
to enlist. That every inducement might be offered to the 
citizens to join the expedition, the Assembly resolved that 
the governor and council should speedily appoint the officers 
for the troops, and that volunteer soldiers should have 
the privilege of selecting those under whom they would 
serve. His excellency was requested by the Assembly to 
issue a second proclamation, making known to the people 
with more particularity the will of the king, and again 
inviting those who were able-bodied to hand in their names 
to the committee in each county. That there might be no 
delay, the governor and committee of war were authorized 
* Colonial Records, MS. 



892 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

to draw on the public treasury for such sums as they should 
deem necessary for the outfit. A sloop of war of six hun- 
dred tons burthen was ordered to be procured for the fur- 
ther protection of the coast. 

At the preceding session, bills of credit had been issued 
to the amount of £30,000 ; and at the July session, the issue 
was increased £15,000 more — making in all £45,000;* an 
enormous sum, when we consider the object of the war, and 
the limited resources of the colony. 

The preparations in England were pushed forward with 
singular dispatch. Money was appropriated without stint 
to fit out a fleet and armament that should at the same time 
satisfy the national pride and silence the clamors of the 
opposition. 

In October, the armament sailed from England under the 
command of Lord Cathcart, whose talents and great popu- 
larity added something to the good auguries that seemed to 
attend the enterprise. His lordship was conveyed by twenty- 
five ships of the line, with a corresponding number of fri- 
gates, fire-ships, bomb-ketchers, tenders, hospital ships, and 
all the other enginery of mischief that even then attended 
the British flag, wherever it floated in hostile array over 
the ocean. 

After the union of this large force, with that of Vice Admi- 
ral Vernon at Jamaica, the whole fleet amounted to twenty- 
nine ships of the line, and as many frigates. 

There were fifteen thousand seamen. The land army, 
including the provincial troops, amounted to twelve thou- 
sand effective men. No fleet that could compare with it in 
size or perfect equipment had ever visited the West Indian 
seas. It is not surprising that Vernon, who had, with his 
few ships, as early as November, made good a part of his 
prophecy by taking and plundering Porto Bello and demol- 
ishing its fortifications,f should have felt his heart beat with 
pride when he saw himself at last at the head of such an 
armament. But he was doomed to bitter disappointment. 
* Colonial Records, MS. t Univ. Hist. xii. 412, 416 ; Holmes, ii. 12. 



[1741.] THE FLEET DRIVEN FEOi[ CARTHAGENA. 393 

Lord Cathcart suddenly died before the union of the fleets 
was fully effected. His death threw the command of the 
army upon General Wentworth, who proved to be little 
more than an instrument in the hands of Vernon. 

Intoxicated with his success at Porto Bello, and inflamed 
with the true English hatred of France, Vernon, instead of 
embracing the favorable moment to take possession of Car- 
thagena while it was in no condition to withstand his attacks, 
obtained a vote of the council of war to beat up against the 
wind to Hispaniola, with the hope of meeting with a French 
squadron that had been sent from Europe under the Mar- 
quis d'Autin to reinforce the Spaniards. This search ended 
in nothing but chagrin and disaster. The squadron that the 
British admiral was in quest of, was already far on its way to 
France, and before the fleet could again be in readiness to 
attack Carthagena, the garrison there had been so rein- 
forced by the French that it amounted to four thousand 
men.* 

After consuming two months in this romantic pastime, 
Vernon and Wentworth set themselves busily to the task of 
subduing Carthagena. They began the attack on the 10th of 
March, by assailing the forts and castles that guarded the 
harbor, and succeeded at length in demolishing them so that 
the admiral could effect an entrance. Wentworth now made 
a demonstration upon the town, but was driven back with 
the loss of about five hundred men. Discouraged at this 
rebuff", Vernon and Wentworth appear to have joined in the 
conclusion that it was idle to look any longer for laurels at 
Carthagena. About the 1st of April, therefore, the army 
and fleet were withdrawn, and spent some time in the plea- 
sant recreation of beating about the islands in quest of Span- 
ish ships. Six Spanish men of w^ar, eight galleons and some 
smaffer vessels were thus caught while fluttering between 
their respective ports. f But the assailants soon tired of 
such profitless amusement. 

* Trumbull, ii. 267. 
+ Trumbull, ii. 268 ; see also, Holmes, ii. 15 ; Univ. Hist. xii. 429, 445. 



394 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

In July, fired with a new passion for glory, they made an 
attack upon Cuba, and without much resistance appropria- 
ted to the fleet one of the fine harbors with which that noble 
island abounds. But misfortune followed hard upon them in 
the shape of a sudden and mortal disease that, in the burning 
tropical air, preyed frightfully upon the vitals of the army 
and the seamen who had been accustomed to the invigora- 
ting influences of a northern climate. The ravages of this 
enemy were like those of the plague, or of that more mod- 
ern disease, cholera. For nearly a week, every day offered 
up its sacrifice of one thousand men ; and at the height of 
the malady, during forty-eight hours, three thousand four 
hundred and forty men fell victims to it. Of the thousand 
athletic soldiers who went from New England, not one 
hundred returned.* 

Thus ended this inglorious scheme, but the war still con- 
tinued ; and it was resolved that it should never be brought 
to an end until some treaty stipulations could be forced from 
Spain, that would place the southern colonies upon a safer 
footing and would prevent the future interruption of British 
trade. 

Thus, year after year, war, like a slow and poisonous 
humor in the blood, continued to waste the vitality of the 
American colonies. In vain did Governor Oglethorpe of 
Georgia rally the brave men under his command, seconded 
by Virginia and the Carolinas, and countenanced by the 
fickle favors of the few Indians that could be induced to 



* Though few had perished by the enemy, it was computed, on a moderate 
calculation, that before the arrival at Jamaica 20,000 English subjects had died 
since their first attack on Carthagena. To this desolating mortality the poet, 
Thompson refers, in iis admirable description of the " Pestilence :" [" Seasons" 
—Summer, I., 1040, 1050.] 

" Such lis, of Inte, nt Carthngena quench'd 

The British fire. You, gallant Vernon ! saw 

The miserable scene, you heard the groans 

Of agonizing ships from shore to shore ; 

Heard nightly plunged, amid the sullen waves, 

The frequent corse." 
Admiral Vernon, who seems to have been held in high esteem by the oppo- 
Bition in England, died suddenly, 29th of October, 1757, aged 73. 



[1744.] WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 895 

follow him. Without the help of the mother country, and 
with the savages that lurked in the hideous swamps of the 
south, malignant as the serpents that are generated in 
the hot air of these latitudes, skulking upon his trail, he still 
did what human valor could do to deliver the south from 
the commercial interference and arbitrary exactions of 
Spain. But for want of a sufficient naval force he was 
unable to take possession of St. Augustine, and with the 
exception of two Spanish forts that he succeeded in taking, 
the expedition failed.* 

France, meanwhile, though affecting to maintain her neu- 
trality, did every thing that she could to assist Spain in pros- 
ecuting the war ; secretly at first, and at last more openly, 
until, on the 4th of March, 1744, she had the frankness to 
make a formal declaration of war against England. Soon 
after England made a like announcement. f 

Before the tidings of either declaration reached the shores 
of New England, an expedition had been prepared by 
Duvivoir, a French officer of some merit, who sailed from 
Louisbourg, and on the 13th of May, surprised and took pos- 
session of Canso.J He then made a similar attempt upon 
Annopolis, (formerly Port Royal,) and would doubtless have 
succeeded there also had not the place been just before rein- 
forced by troops from Massachusetts. Louisbourg was also 
the central point whence there radiated a large number of 
French privateer ships and men-of-war, that hovered along 
the New England coast and seized upon our trading and 
fishing vessels in great numbers. It thus became impossible 
for the eastern colonies to carry on any maritime business 
whatever, without a convoy, and such a necessity involved 
an expense that amounted to a prohibition. The fishermen 
must renounce their employment, and the coasters must 
keep within port, or run the risk of captivity and a forfeit- 
ture of their goods and vessels. § 

With one consent the people of New England resolved 

* Holmes, ii. 14, 15. t March 31. 
i Holmes, ii. 23 ; Hutchinson, ii. 364. § Hutchinson ; Trumbull. 



S96 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

that Louisbourg must be taken ; yet at first no one appears 
to have thought that it could be done without the coopera- 
tion of a naval force from England. But as the summer 
and fall passed away, and as winter di'ew on, it began to be 
whispered at Boston, that Louisbourg might be taken by 
surprise, and by New England valor alone. These intima- 
tions at last began to take some definite form, and it was 
believed by many that the fortress might be successfully 
besieged at a season of the year when the garrison was pro- 
bably but poorly provisioned, and when it could not hope to 
be relieved by any large supplies from French ships, that 
would hardly venture in great numbers to commit them- 
selves to the rough handling of the Atlantic coast winds in 
the stormy months. It was suggested, too, that a naval 
force adequate to keep off" such few ships as might attempt 
to bring supplies for the relief of the garrison, could be found 
to cruise off the harbor, until the enterprise was completed. 

Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, meanwhile, did what 
he could to learn what was the condition of the fortress, and 
how long it would be likely to withstand a siege. Those 
who had traded at that post, and those who had been con- 
fined there as prisoners, were alike consulted for informa- 
tion. Shirley had also written to England, begging that 
armed sloops might be sent to protect Annapolis ; and should 
these arrive in season, he hoped to avail himself of them to 
defend the provincial troops while they were employed in 
besieging Louisbourg. Commodore Warren, who was at 
the West Indies with a little squadron, might also reasona- 
bly be expected, either to arrive with his whole force, or to 
send a portion of it to the relief of New England, when 
once he had been made acquainted with the wants of the 
colonies. 

The design was to send four thousand troops, in trans- 
ports, to Canso, and as soon as practicable land them in 
Chapeaurouge Bay. This army was to be provided with 
cannon, mortars, and whatever else was necessary for the 
siege. As soon as the winds had subsided so that the small 



[1745.] GOVERNOR SHIRLEY'S TLAN OF ATTACK. 397 

vessels that the colonies could muster might be expected to 
live in the coast waters of the Atlantic, a number of them 
were to be sent to hover near the harbor of Louisbourg, and 
cut off all supplies or reinforcements from the fortification. 
A minute calculation was made of the probable naval force 
of New England. It was found that the aggregate of their 
armed vessels could not exceed twelve, and the largest of these 
only mounted twenty guns. Yet with such a force it was 
believed that there was more than an even chance for suc- 
cess. If the ships from England, or those from the Indies, 
should arrive, the result might be regarded as almost cer- 
tain. 

Early in January, 1745, Governor Shirley made known 
this plan to the General Court. The most solemn secresy 
was enjoined upon all the members of the two houses.* 
Although most of the principal men of the colony were 
doubtless aware of the scheme, and although the necessity 
that Louisbourg should be taken, was a common topic of 
discourse throughout New England, yet the details of the 
plan, and the hurry with which it was proposed to attempt 
it, without the help, and even without the sanction of Eng- 
land, was appalling to the minds of the country representa- 
tives. With dispassionate calmness they debated the matter 
for several days. 

By those who favored the measure it was argued, that if 
this fortress should remain in the hands of the French, it 
would be the Dunkirk of New England ; that the French 
were already tired of attempting to compete with the colo- 
nies in fishing, and that if this stronghold was allowed to 
remain in their possession, it would soon be the rendezvous 
of a knot of pirates and privateers, who would find it easier 
to rifle the fishing vessels of the English than to trouble 
themselves with the details of a business they did not find 
congenial to their habits of life. 

In addition to this calamity, it was quite probable that 
Nova Scotia, won with such toil from the dominion of 

* Holmes, ii. 28 ; Ilutcbinson, ii. 366. 



898 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

France, and still inhabited in part by disaffected French- 
men, would be liable at any time to make a successful revolt, 
so long as the garrison at Louisbourg continued to give 
countenance to such a project. This reprisal, could it be 
effected, would of itself add at least six thousand to the num- 
ber of active enemies, that were already so powerful and so 
unscrupulous. 

Besides, it was urged that the garrison, ill-provisioned as 
it was, could not be expected to make a very vigorous 
resistance ; that the walls of the fort were dilapidated, its 
barracks out of repair and scarcely tenantable, and its gov- 
ernor an old and infirm man, unused to the arts of war. 
If a favorable blow was to be struck, it must be done then. 
Such were a few of the arguments made use of by the 
advocates of the expedition.* 

In reply, it was urged with great force, that the rumors 
so freely circulated, of the condition of the works and the 
garrison at Louisbourg, could not be safely relied on ; that 
appearances were not to be trusted ; that the garrison, 
though small, was made up of well disciplined soldiers, who 
were a match for many times their number of raw provin- 
cial troops ; that the chances were as great, to say the least, 
that ships of war would arrive from France to relieve the 
fort and augment its garrison, as that armed vessels would 
come from England or the West Indies to protect the pro- 
vincial army ; and that at the best such a calculation, based 
upon probabilities and contingencies, was too vague and 
speculative to be made the basis of a military campaign, 
that might involve the dearest interests of the colonies. It 
was said that prudent men should look at both sides of the 
question, and estimate the chances of failure as well as those 
of success ; that if, while the siege was in progress, there 
should appear off the harbor a single French man-of-war, 
it could put to flight the whole naval force of the colonies, 
small as were their crafts, and unaccustomed as their sailors 
were to the dangers of naval warfare. Further than this, 

* Hutchinson, ii. 366, 367. 



[1745.] THE MEASURE IS APPROVED. 399 

who could vouch for the cooperation of the other colonies, 
or even for their ability to furnish the men and the ships that 
were admitted by the most enthusiastic advocates of the 
scheme to be requisite to carry it on ? More than all, who 
but the ruler of the wind and the storm could foresee or 
guard against the treacherous dangers of the deep, at a sea- 
son of the year when the coast was white with breakers, 
and the caps of the waves towered above the masts of the 
little vessels that were expected to contend with them? 
Finally, even should the attack result favorably, would it 
not redound to the glory of England, while it proved a 
thankless labor for the colonies, wliicli might ask in vain to be 
remunerated for the heavy expenses that they had incurred 
in the war.* 

Such arguments as these prevailed, and the measure was 
lost in the house. In this decision the council acquiesced, 
and for some days the project appeared to have been forgot- 
ten. f Governor Shirley himself seemed to have been con- 
vinced of his error by the cogent reasoning of the opposi- 
tion. But Shirley was a man not easily baffled. He 
secretly set himself at work to bring external influences to 
bear upon the recusant members. All at once, as if by 
a spontaneous movement, the merchants and other rich and 
influential men of Massachusetts began to petition the Gen- 
eral Court to revive and pass the defeated measure. The 
petition set forth all the reasons that could be suggested in 
favor of the expedition. The flagging of commerce, espeH 
cially the destruction of the fishing and coasting business, 
were the main considerations that were pressed upon the 
court. 

A committee was appointed to investigate the matter 
anew, and was finally prevailed on to recommend the mea- 
sure. For another day the subject was debated, and when the 
question was taken in the house, it was carried by a single 
vote. J Entire unanimity prevailed in both houses as soon 

* Hutcliinson, ii. 367, 368. + Hutchinson, ii. 368 ; Holmes, ii. 25. 

i Holmes, Hutchinson, Trumbull, Bancroft. 



400 HISTOEY OF CONNECTICUT. 

as the determination of the court was made known, and all 
parties now addressed themselves with vigor to the work of 
preparation. Dispatches were sent to the neighboring colo- 
nies, soliciting their assistance. All the colonies, except 
those of New England, refused to participate in the dangers 
of the undertaking. It was determined that Massachusetts 
should raise three thousand two hundred and fifty men ; 
that Connecticut should be required to furnish five hundred-^ 
and Rhode Island and New Hampshire, each three hundred. 

As soon as this request was made known to Governor Law, 
he called a special session of the Assembly^ >vhich convened 
at Hartford on the 26th of February, and immediately voted 
to raise five hundred men for the service. A bounty of ten 
pounds was voted to each soldier who should provide him- 
self with arms, knapsack, and blanket. These troops were 
divided into eight companies. Roger Wolcott, the Lieu- 
tenant Governor, was appointed commander-in-chief of the 
Connecticut forces ; Andrew Burr, colonel ; Simeon Lathrop, 
lieutenant-colonel ; and Israel Newton, major.* It was 
ordered that the sloop of war. Defense, should sail as the 
convoy of the regiment. New London was to be the 
place of embarkation. The most liberal measures were taken 
to furnish supplies and munitions of war, under the direction 
of commissioners, while Jonathan Trumbull and Elisha Wil- 
liams, Esquires, constituted a separate board, who were to 
repair to Boston and treat with the gentlemen whom they 
should find there representing Massachusetts or the other 
New England colonies, as to the general plan and details 
of the undertaking.! Only three days were spent in this 
most important matter. 

The mildness of the weather, so unusual in March, made 
the task of getting the men together, and furnishing them 
with necessaries, remarkably easy. 

The popularity of colonel, afterwards Sir William Pep- 

* Elizur Goodrich, David Wooster, Stephen Lee, Samuel Adams, and John 
Dvvight, wei'e appointed captains at the same session. 
+ Colony Records, MS. 



[1745] TIDINGS OF COMMODORE WARREN. 401 

perell, commander-in-chief of the army, and of Roger Wol- 
cott, the second in command, induced the better sort of 
people to enhst. Massachusetts and Connecticut sent out 
some of their best freeholders, and the ranks were filled 
with the sons of wealthy farmers. The merchants of the 
principal towns, the clergymen, and other educated gentle- 
men, made great sacrifices to render the armament as com- 
plete as possible. The whole naval power of New England 
that could be made available in this emergency, consisted of 
only twelve vessels, viz., the Connecticut sloop of war, ano- 
ther fine sloop of war belonging to Rhode Island, a privateer 
ship of two hundred tons burthen, a snow belonging to 
Newport, a new snow under the command of Captain Rouse, 
another commanded by Captain Smethurst, a ship under the 
command of Captain Snelling, a brig under Captain Fletcher, 
three small sloops under Captains Saunders, Donehew, 
and Bosch, and a ship of twenty guns, under Captain Ting, 
who commanded the whole force.* 

All that New York could be induced to do in aid of the 
enterprise, was to yield a very tardy assent to the solicita- 
tions of Governor Shirley for the loan of ten eighteen- 
pounders. 

The special assembly of Connecticut, that had been con- 
voked by Governor Law on the 26th of February, stood 
adjourned until the 14th of March, when it met and 
appointed five more captains, whose ^names were James 
Church, Daniel Chapman, William Whiting, Robert Denison, 
an^ Andrew Ward. The Rev. Elisha Williams, who had 
been rector of Yale College, was selected to accompany the 
Connecticut troops as chaplain. f 

By the 23d of March, the other Massachusetts troops 
were all embarked and ready to weigh anchor. The express 
boat from the West Indies arrived with tidings from Com- 
modore Warren. The purport of his answer was, that he 
had lost one of his ships, and was thereby much disabled ; 
and, further, he did not deem it prudent for him to intermed- 

* Hutchinson, ii. 369 ; Trumbull, ii. 275. t Colony Records, MS. 

26 



'402 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

die in a matter that seemed to want the sanction of the 
British government. This discouraging information was not 
made known, however, by Governor Shirley to the army, and 
the fleet immediately sailed. About the same time the Con- 
necticut troops and those from the two other colonies set 
sail. 

The New Hampshire' forces arrived at Canso on the 1st 
of April ; those from Massachusetts, on the 4th, and those 
from Connecticut, on the 25th. The land army consisted of 
four thousand able bodied men, well officered and in excel- 
lent spirits.* 

Scarcely had the Massachusetts express boat taken leave 
of Commodore Warren, when dispatches from England 
reached him, commanding him to sail for Boston with such 
ships as could be spared, to assist Governor Shirley in con- 
certing and carrying out measures for the king's general ser- 
vice in America. Relieved from the restraints, that had before 
embarrassed his mind. Warren sent out an express to such 
ships as were to be found in the western seas, to join him 
as speedily as they could, and with joy hastened to fulfil the 
king's commands. On his passage he learned that the fleet 
had sailed for Canso, and without putting in at Boston harbor, 
he made all haste to reach Canso, where he arrived in the Su- 
perb, a ship of sixty guns, in company with the Lanceston and 
Mermaid, of forty guns each. On the same day, the Eltham, 
of forty guns, from Portsmouth, reached the same port. The 
pulses of the provincial soldiers beat quick and high, like the 
waves of that northern sea, when the British flag was seen 
floating from the mast head of those five sturdy ships. Com- 
modore Warren, after a short conference with Colonel Pep- 
perell, sailed for Louisbourg harbor.f 

Already the few colonial ships and vessels, that had been 
cruising there, had rendered important services by seizing 
several vessels bound to Louisbourg with provisions. They 
had also fallen in with the Renomme, a French ship of 

* The three hundred soldiers from Rhode Island did not reach Louisbourg 
until after its capture. 

+ Hutchinson, 



[1745] LANDING OF THE TROOPS. 403 

thirty-six guns, bearing dispatches. She kept up a running 
fire for awhile with the cruisers, that resisted her entrance 
into the harbor, and then giving up the attempt as hopeless, 
she commenced her return voyage. As the Connecticut 
and Rhode Island troops, having farther to sail than those of 
the other colonies, were yet on their passage, the Renomme 
met them under convoy of their two small sloops, either one 
of which a single broadside of her metal might have sunk ; 
yet, after saluting, with a few coy shots at a distance, and 
doing some damage to the Rhode Island sloop, she prudently 
resumed her regular course. She must have easily divined 
that something besides the coasting trade had set in motion 
the sails that swarmed along the coast in such defiant 
array. 

The fleet and army followed the men-of-war, and arrived 
safely in Chapeaurogue Bay on the 30th of April. 

All this time the enemy had remained in ignorance of the 
attempt that was about to be made upon the garrison. 
Even the cruisers had not alarmed them, as they sup- 
posed them to be engaged in the old business of privateering 
for fishing and trading vessels. But when early on the 
morning of the 30th of April, they looked oft' from the 
heights that commanded the town, and saw the transports 
beating into the bay, their eyes were opened. The governor 
immediately sent out Bouladrie, with one hundred and fifty 
disciplined troops, to oppose the landing of the enemy. Gen- 
eral Pepperill with much address kept him employed while 
he was efifecting a landing at another point. This small 
detachment of brave men was sadly cut in pieces at the 
first fire. Bouladrie soon found himself a prisoner, and the 
remnant of his men flying, from the invaders easily effected 
a landing.* 

Four hundred men, on the following morning, screened by 
the hills, marched to the north-east harbor, laying in ashes 
the houses and stores that they found in their way, until they 
had arrived within a mile of the general battery. From this 

* Trumbull, ii. 279. 



404 HISTOEY OF CONNECTICUT. 

indiscriminate conflagration such dense volumes of smoke 
arose, enveloping the soldiers who kept close beneath its 
shadow, that the enemy, who could only be aware of the 
advance of the English by the line of fire and vapor that 
was gradually lengthened out below them, and who believed 
that the whole invading army was approaching, hastily threw 
their powder into a well and fled in dismay from the bat- 
tery. With steady hands and bold hearts, this handful of 
undisciplined provincials moved forward, and took possession 
of it without the loss of a man. They soon brought the 
cannon that the enemy had left, to bear upon the town, but 
as the guns were forty-two pounders and consumed too 
much powder, the firing was soon discontinued.* 

Thus far every thing had been easy ; the labor was now 
to begin. The heart of the fortification was still sound and 
secure. In order to bring guns to bear upon the main 
works, it was necessary to drag them a distance of two 
miles, before they could make them available by means of 
fascine batteries. To add to the almost unsurmountable diffi- 
culties that attended this task, a deep morass that would not 
sustain the weight of oxen or horses, stretched like a 
Serbonian bog between them and the spot where it was 
necessary that these temporary batteries should be erected. 
Ignorant of the ordinary approaches of a besieging army, 
untaught, except in the rude way that nature teaches her 
hardiest sons, the provincial troops set themselves about the 
work with surprising energy, performing, under cover of 
darkness, the drudgery fit only for beasts of burden, drag- 
ging heavy forty-two pounders, mortars, and timbers over 
the trembling surface of the swamp, carrying shot and shells 
along difficult places, with the same persistency that had 
leveled the forests of their fields and committed them to the 
crackling fire, and with as little military education as they 
had been in the habit of employing in erecting cedar palis- 
ades around their border houses. 

Under such discouraging auspices, waging against nature 
* Hutchinson, ii. 374 ; Trumbull, ii. 277, 278 ; Holmes, ii. 26. 



[1745.] ARRIVAL OF ENGLISH SHIPS. 405 

and struggling against a fortified and disciplined enemy, in 
less than twenty days they had erected five fascine batteries, 
one of which mounted five forty-two pounders. 

While this almost unheard of labor was going forward on 
shore, the fleet was by no means inactive. While cruising off 
the harbor, the Vigilant, a French sixty-four gun ship, was 
met by the Mermaid whom she engaged. As the Mermaid 
was a forty-four gun ship, Captain Douglass suffered himself 
to be chased until he had drawn his adversary within the 
range of the commodore's guns. As soon as the Vigilant 
discovered her hopeless condition she struck her colors 
without firing a shot.* Her fate was decisive of the 
fate of Louisbourg. She was under the command of the 
Marquis de la Maison Forte, a very gallant officer, and had 
on board five hundred and sixty men, with stores that would 
have enabled the fort to hold out until a sufficient naval 
force could have arrived from France to have made it 
impregnable. This easy victory, while it emboldened the 
provincial army, discouraged the garrison and hastened 
the capitulation. 

Just before the arrival of the Vigilant, it had been pro- 
posed that the men-of-war should anchor in the bay, and 
that the marines, and such of the sailors as could be spared, 
should go ashore and help to complete the batteries. Had 
this measure been adopted, the Vigilant would have entered 
the harbor, and the fortune of the expedition would have 
been changed. f But every circumstance seemed to favor 
the success of the invading army. Four days after the Vigi- 
lant had struck her colors, the English fleet was augmented 
by the arrival of two ships, the Princess Mary of sixty, 
and the Hector of forty guns. Shortly afterwards came the 
Canterbury and the Sunderland, each of sixty guns, and the 
Chester of fifty guns — in all, eleven men-of-war, viz., one 
of sixty-four, four of sixty, one of fifty, and five of forty 
guns-t 

* Hutchinson, ii. 374, 375. 
t Hutchinson ; Trumbull, t Hutchinson, ii. 375, 376. 



406 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Looking off upon the waters, the garrison watched these 
vultures of the sea, one after another spreading their white 
wings along the line of the horizon, and pointing their beaks 
towards Chapeaurouge Bay. Already the island battery had 
ceased to make a regular response to the shot and shells of 
the besiegers, and was only heard to reply at long intervals, 
while the melancholy boom of its cannon, like a signal of 
distress, echoed ominously over the ocean. 

Already the western gate of the town was shattered in 
pieces, and breaches had begun to be visible in the wall. 
The north-east battery was no longer defensible, and the cir- 
cular battery of sixteen guns, the only one that could com- 
mand the sea and defend the town against ships, was a ruin. 
Besides, they had every cause to expect that a general attack 
by sea and land would soon overwhelm the garrison and the 
town. With these necessities staring them in the face, the 
enemy, on the 15th of June, begged for a cessation of hos- 
tilities that the parties might agree upon some terms of 
capitulation. This was granted, and on the 17th of June, 
1745, after a siege of forty-nine days, the city of Louisbourg, 
and the Island of Cape Breton, were surrendered into the 
hands of King George II.* 

It is impossible to say what would have been the fate of 
the expedition had the garrison held out a little longer. The 
provincial army was already much in want of ammunition, 
greatly reduced from the hardships that it had encountered 
in constructing and afterwards manning the fascine bat- 
teries, and in lying upon the damp cold ground at night 
without tents that could protect them from the rains or 
even from the dews. 

General Pepperell had sent off dispatches to New England 
for recruits, and fresh supplies of ammunition. The demand 
had been answered by the colonies as well as they were able, 
and about eight hundred men, and such munitions as could 
be purchased, had been sent forward. Connecticut voted to 

* Bancroft, Hutchinson, Holmes, Trumbull. 



[1745.] IMPORTANCE OF THE VICTORY. 407 

raise three hundred additional troops upon the same terms 
that had induced the first regiment to enhst.* Still, it is 
doubtful whether this reinforcement could have reached 
Louisbourg in time to relieve the army. Nature, too, would 
have conspired with the enemy to make the situation of the 
besiegers most dismal had the capitulation been postponed 
for a single day. 

On the 18th of June, there came on a violent and protract- 
ed storm. For ten tedious days, it rained almost without in- 
termission. Had the soldiers been left to the frail covering 
of their tents, they must have been exposed to the most ex- 
treme hardships, and would perhaps have been compelled to 
take refuge on board the ships. But the houses of Louis- 
bourg afibrded quite a different shelter, where the weary 
farmers had an opportunity to look off" upon the storm with 
nothing to interrupt their serenity, except an occasional 
twinge of recollection that forced too vividly upon their 
minds the images of their absent wives and daughters, and 
the neglected corn-fields that should supply them with food. 
The steadiness and coolness manifested by the colonial troops 
during this long siege, afforded a commentary upon the in- 
stitutions under which they had been reared, that, had it been 
treasured up by the British government as a lesson, might 
have saved the more bitter lessons of experience that were 
to follow. 

The intelligence of this wonderful victory reached Bos- 
ton on the 3rd of July, and was received with the most 
marked demonstrations of joy throughout the colonies. 
Even those provinces that had thought the project chimeri- 
cal, and had refused to join in it, now generously offered to 
share in the expenses incurred in prosecuting it. Pennsylva- 
nia appropriated four thousand pounds, New Jersey two 
thousand, and New York three thousand in money and 
provisions. f 

Well might the capture of Louisbourg be regarded as an 

* Colony Records, MS. t Trumbull, ii, 280. 



408 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

important achievement. It was a fortress of great strength, 
and France had expended vast sums of money upon, it with a 
view of making it the stronghold of her power upon the Atlan- 
tic coast. The town was encircled by a wall about eighty 
feet wide, and its ramparts were thirty feet in height, and 
mounted with sixty-five cannon which presented no slight 
obstacle to the approach of a besieging army. The mouth 
of the harbor was commanded by the grand battery with 
thirty forty-two pounders, and by the island battery, with an 
equal number of twenty-eight pounders. There were also 
in the fortress, sixteen mortars, and ammunition and stores to 
withstand a six months' seige. The garrison was made up 
of six hundred regulars and thirteen hundred militia — all 
well trained troops.* 

Thus fortified, France had not dreamed that Louisbourg 
could fall a prey to her old and hated rival, before she could 
send a fleet and armament to relieve it. Much less had it 
entered the imagination of her most cautious statesman or 
military leader, that without the firing of a shot from a British 
ship, and without the aid of a British engineer, an army of 
provincial troops, undisciplined, and not even acting in ac- 
cordance with the expressed wishes of the English govern- 
ment, should have conceived and executed a plan that would 
have been thought so impracticable even in the hands of that 
government itself. 

From the first commencement of those bloody wars be- 
tween the two powers for dominion over the western hemis- 
phere, no blow that France had received had penetrated 
so deeply, or inflicted such a rankling and immedicable 
wound. 

The value of the prizes alone, amounted to about one 
million pounds sterling. Several rich merchantmen were 
taken during the siege, and to add to the mortification 
resulting from the loss, some of these ships were known to 
have been decoyed into Chapeaurouge Bay by the French 
flag that had been kept floating from the fort, in the vain 

+ Hutchinson. 



[1745.] SERVICES OF CONNECTICUT. 409 

hope of gathering together a sufficient number of armed ves- 
sels to relieve the garrison.* 

New England not only captured Louisbourg, but for 
eleven months the place was entirely defended by New 
England men. More than five thousand colonial troops 
shared the honor either of capturing or of keeping 
possession of the fortress ; and the disease that invaded 
the English garrison a few months after the capitula- 
tion, fell with the heaviest hand upon the colonies. f 

Connecticut furnished for the undertaking about eleven 
hundred men. The expenses incurred in fitting out these 
men, and the wages that were paid them, came from the 
treasury of the colony. Connecticut petitioned the king to 
make her good for the money thus laid out, or to allow her 
to share in the prizes that had been taken during the expedi- 
tion. Her prayer was disregarded, and she submitted to the 
loss in silence. J 

The effect of this enterprise upon the two nations inter- 
ested in it, was what might have been readily anticipated. 
England, anxious to shun the burden while she claimed the 
glory of the victory, again resumed her old scheme — the re- 
duction of Canada — and resolved to sweep from the western 
continent the last vestige of French dominion. On the oth- 
er hand, France, stung to madness at the blow, determined 
to retrieve what she had thus ingloriously lost, and to add to 
her self-vindication, the consolations of revenge, by ranging 
the whole coast from Nova Scotia to Georgia. 

* Holmes, ii. 27 ; Col. Mass. Hist. Soc, i. 4, 60 ; Douglass, i. 336 ; Belknap's 
Hist. N. Hamp., ii. 193, 224. t Hutchinson. 

:f Our records contain frequent requests to the colonial agent in England, to 
petition for, and receive the money to reimburse the colony for her heavy expen- 
ses in said expedition ; and in October, 1748, the agent is desired to obtain "a 
speedy payment of the money granted to us by Parliament'^ for that purpose. 
It would seem, however, that the money was never received. This is more to be 
wondered at from the fact that £183,649, 2s, Id, granted by Parliament for the 
purposes of reimbursement, arrived in Boston. It consisted of 215 chests, each 
containing 3,000 pieces of eight, and 100 casks of coined copper. There were 17 
cart and truck loads of silver, and 10 truck loads of copper. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. 
This may have all been designed for Massachusetts, and used by her. 



410 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Animated by such motives, tlie two powers set themselves 
to perfect the enterprise that each had planned. 

It was decided by the British government, that eight bat- 
talions of regular troops should meet at Louisbourg the 
forces to be raised in New England, and with a squadron 
under Admiral Warren, proceed up the St. Lawrence to 
Quebec ; while another army from New York and the other 
colonies, as far south as Virginia, should rendezvous at Al- 
bany, and under the command of Governor St. Clair, march 
across the country to Montreal. No specified number of 
soldiers was required to be raised by any of the colonies, but 
it was thought best, in a cause where all were interested, to 
leave it to the magnanimity and emulation of each. It was, 
however, intimated that the proportion of troops to be furn- 
ished from the provinces, should be at least five thousand 
men. New England herself raised five thousand three hun- 
dred soldiers ; New York and the other colonies, two thou- 
sand nine hundred. Of the number raised by New Eng- 
land, Connecticut furnished one thousand fighting men.* 
Such was the anxiety to accomplish this darling project, that 
the General Assembly of Connecticut was convoked imme- 
diately after the intentions of the government had been made 
known, and a bounty of thirty pounds was voted to every 
soldier who would enlist. It w^as also resolved, that if provis- 
ions could not be had without, they should be impressed. f 

When we reflect that the members of the assembly were, 
by such a vote, exposing their own property to the same liabili- 
ties as that of their neighbors, and that the public sentiment 
would sustain such an order without compromising the popu- 
larity of the members, we see the reverence for law, and the 
manly spirit of self-sacrifice that has always characterized 
our people. 

* The numbers of soldiers voted to be raised by the different colonies were very 
unequal, (as follows :) — New Hampshire, 500 ; Massachusetts, 3,500 ; Rhode 
Island, 300; Connecticut, 1,000; New York, 1,600; New Jersey, 500; Mary- 
land, 300 ; Virginia, 100 ; Pennsylvania, 400. 

t Colony Records, MS. 



[1746.] PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. 411 

In six weeks from the time when the preparations began, 
our troops were ready to embark. 

At the same time, a formidable armament was being pre- 
pared at Portsmouth, under the command of Richard 
Lestock, admiral of the blue, with transports carrying six 
regiments to act in concert with the colonial army ; but sucli 
was the delay that attended the fitting out of the lleet, that 
when it was ready to sail, it was too late in the season to 
venture upon the Atlantic coast. It sailed to the coast of 
Brittany, in the hope of surprising the port of L'Orient, and 
taking possession of the military stores and ships of the 
French East India Company, but was able to do but little 
harm to the enemy.* 

France made every exertion not to be outdone in the 
magnitude of her preparations. The Duke D'Anville, the 
leader of the enterprise, and a nobleman of high character 
and courage, soon sailed for the north Atlantic coast, with a 
fleet consisting of eleven ships of the line, thirty smaller 
ships and vessels, and transports, with more than three thou- 
sand land forces on board, who were to meet at Nova Scotia, 
with sixteen hundred French and Indians from Canada. 
The fleet and armament sailed from France on the 22d of 
June. An express was dispatched to Monsieur Conflans, 
who had been sent to Carthagena, with three ships of the 
line and a frigate, as a convoy of some trading vessels, or- 
dered him to join the Duke at Chebucto.f 

On account of adverse winds and other causes of delay, 
the Duke D'Anville, did not pass the 'Western Islands until 
the 3d of August. On the 24th of August, while yet three 
hundred leagues from Nova Scotia, one of his largest ships 
proved so unseaworthy that he was obliged to commit her to 
the flames. On the 1st of September, there came on a ter- 
rible storm, that so deranged the Mars and the Alcide, (both 
eighty-four gun ships,) that they were compelled to retire 
to the West Indies. Pestilence aided the winds ; and soon 
after, the Ardent, another sixty-four gun ship, put back into 

* Hutchinson. + Hutchinson ; Trumbull ; Bancroft, &c. 



412 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

Brest, on account of an epidemic that prevailed among the 
crew. 

On the 12th of September, the Duke finally reached 
Chebucto in the ship Northumberland, with only one ship of 
the line, the Renomme, and three or four transports. A 
single ship had arrived there before him, and the rest had 
been scattered, he knew not where, by the fury of the ele- 
ments. Monsieur Conflans, who had, according to orders, 
arrived there in August, and had looked in vain, for the fleet 
had already sailed for France.* 

Little did the colonies dream, while they were making 
such active preparations to invade Canada, that France was 
fitting out such an armament to overwhelm the whole coast. 
Therefore, when the fishermen who had fled from Chebucto 
on the appearance of Conflans, reported at Boston the arriv- 
al of a French fleet, their story gained little credence. 
Early in September, however, it was reported at Boston, 
from a source that could not be questioned, that a large 
French fleet had sailed for America. Soon after, there were 
flying rumors that a great fleet had been seen to the west- 
ward of Newfoundland. Still, it was hoped that this was 
the English fleet. On the 28th of September, an express 
boat brought intelligence that it was the French fleet. It 
was said to consist of fourteen ships of the line, and twenty 
smaller armed vessels, and that it had on board eight thousand 
troops. t 

Ignorant of the injuries that the Duke D'Anville had sus- 
tained at sea, and believing that he had come with his entire 
fleet and armament, the colonies were thrown into consterna- 
tion by this intelligence. They soon, however, recovered 
their self-possession and exerted themselves to the utmost to 
defend the coast. In a few days, more than six thousand of 
the inland militia were brought into Boston to reinforce the 
town. As many more were in readiness to go as soon as 
their presence might be required. Anxiously did the colonies 
await the coming of the English fleet. 

* Hutchinson, ii. 383, 384. t Hutchinson, ii. 382. 



[1746.] DEATH OF d'ANVILLE AND d'ESTOURNELLE. 413 

The proud Duke D'Anville meanwhile looked with a vain 
longing for the scattered members of his fleet. After re- 
maining for four days at Chebucto in a state of intense fever- 
ish excitement, and finding himself still in the same hopeless 
condition, he took leave of a world that appeared to have 
disappointed the hopes that made existence dear to him. 
Whether he died of apoplexy occasioned by chagrin, or from 
poison administered by his own hand, was never satisfactori- 
ly ascertained. He died in the morning, and in the after- 
noon of the same day, his Vice Admiral, D'Estournelle, with 
four ships of the line, came into port. His men were feeble 
and unfit for duty. After he had learned the sudden death 
of his superior officer, the departure of Conflans, and the loss 
of some of the best ships belonging to the fleet, he called a 
council of the officers, and proposed that they should return 
to France. But Monseiur de la Jonquiere, the Governor of 
Canada, who was on board, and the next in command, firmly 
opposed the proposition. Fresh air and wholesome food, he 
said, would soon recruit the men, and they had still force 
enough left to reduce Annapolis and Nova Scotia, and that 
there would be time enough to decide whether they should 
spend the winter in Canso Bay, or return home. This coun- 
sel prevailed after a debate of eight hours. Enraged at this 
rejection of his advice, D'Estournelle was thrown into a 
malignant fever, and in the delirium occasioned by the mala- 
dy, he stabbed himself* 

Jonquiere, now chief in command, bent all his energies to 
carry out the plan that had resulted in the death of the Vice 
Admiral. The better to recruit his troops, he ordered them 
to go ashore, where the Acadians and Indians did everything 
in their power to relieve their sufferings. But dysenteries 
and fevers swept off" hundreds of them. It was estimated 
that one-third of the Nova Scotia Indians died of the disea- 
ses communicated by the French troops. 

A singular incident defeated the plan of Jonquiere. Gov- 

* Belknap, N. Hamp. ii. c, 20; Adams, N. Eng. 210; Hutchinson, ii. 384; 
Holmes, ii. 30. 



414 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

ernor Shirley, in the belief that he had received positive in- 
telligence of the sailing of the English fleet, sent off an ex- 
press to inform Admiral Lestock, at Louisbourg, of the state 
of affairs in America. On the 11th of October, the express- 
packet was captured by the French and carried into Chebuc- 
to. Her errand was made known to the French officers, 
and so alarmed them that it was thought advisable to 
sail immediately for France, without attempting to strike a 
blow.* 

On the 15th of October, another fearful storm came on, 
and again the fleet was scattered. Only about one half of 
the army ever returned, and several of the ships were de- 
stroyed. f Thus ended in shipwreck and chagrin this 
haughty attempt upon the British colonies. 

The capture of Louisbourg and the discomfiture of the 
French fleet by our army, that could not be subdued by 
human enemies, had thus prepared the way for the peace of 
Aix la Chapelle, that gave England an opportunity to recover 
from the effects of the rebellion that had now ended in the 
defeat of the Pretender, and gave her colonies liberty to 
throw off" again the shackles of debts that they had incurred 
in the war. 

Connecticut had been compelled to issue bills of credit to 
the amount of eighty thousand pounds. It was many years 
before she could redeem them. The existence of troubles 
at home, was the alleged cause of the neglect with which the 
British government treated the colonies at a time when 
they were threatened with total destruction. Thus robbed 
in peace, and left to the tender mercies of their enemies in 
times of danger, the hearts of the colonists were gradually 
alienated from the mother country. 

* Hutchinson, ii. 384, 385. + Hutchinson, ii. 385. 



CHAPTER XX. 

EAELY MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF CONNECTICUT. 

It may be a relief alike to the reader and the author to 
take a short leave of the more rapid current of historical 
narrative, and linger awhile where the waters, without los- 
ing their vitality, sleep tranquilly with the image of bank 
and tree resting upon their surface. When we read 
over a detailed account of the stirring events that make up 
what is ordinarily called histoiy, we are apt to attribute to 
those events, and to the principal men who participated in 
them, an importance that does not belong to them. No one 
man, whatever may be his natural endofwments, is so far 
in advance of his age, as his contemporaries believe him to 
be. Let us say, rather, that he is the expression, the utter- 
ance, of that deep, unconscious power that quickens the 
bosom and animates the features of his generation, as the 
wind-harp gives out to the ear the rich harmonies that before 
floated voiceless in the elements. The fibre of silk that you 
suspend in your window-frame, in the one case, and the hero, 
the great poet, the lawgiver who discloses new principles of 
civil polity, in the other, are each the accident that makes 
audible the musical cadences that are always waiting to be 
revealed to man. Hence, Shakspeare and Bacon are the 
voices that express the magnificent era in British history that 
united so much of the grandeur of the middle ages with the 
demonstrative, analytical power that was to follow it. 
Hence, Milton and Cromwell, as unlike each other as men 
could well be, spoke, shall I not rather say, prophesied — the 
one of the elevated tone of philosophy, polity, and religion, 
the other of the revolutionary tendencies of the century that 
was to build the fabric of society upon a new basis, that at 
the end of two hundred years still remains unshaken. 



416 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

If these remarks are correct, it becomes us to turn our 
attention not only to the Ludlows, the Winthrops, the Wol- 
cotts, and the Wyllyses, of Connecticut, but to those men, 
equally manly and bold, many of whom left homes as com- 
fortable, though less known to history, and associations as 
tender as theirs, to accompany them into self-exile and sub- 
mit to hardships such as are not known to our day, and 
magnified ten-fold by the dark uncertainties that attended 
them. Nor should we lose sight of those noble-hearted Eng- 
lish women, who found in their natures room foi*'the cultiva- 
tion of the domestic virtues and for the devoutest love of 
God, who spurned the weaknesses that seem to add to the 
charms of the sex in times of peace, who met the worst 
dangers with calmness, and who shed no tears except for 
others. 

In the lives of these fearless men and women who have 
left no marks to distinguish them beyond the few letters that 
designate upon the records when they were born, when they 
were married, and when they died ; or beyond the brown 
slab placed over the spot where long ago their bones crum- 
bled into the mould — a slab with its rough symbols and 
"shapeless sculpture" — are we to look for the courage that 
subdued the forest and its terrible inhabitants, the fortitude 
that bore up against the heavy burdens of life, the spontane- 
ous sentiment of liberty that aroused them to resist the 
aggressions of the French and the insolence of Cornbury 
and Andross. In raising the monumental stone that is to 
bear the name of some great hero or statesman, let us look 
upon the shaft as commemorating not so much the virtues of. 
an individual as of a whole people. 

It has been thought by many who have had little opportu- 
nity or desire to form correct estimates of the people of 
Connecticut, that they sprung from a low and vulgar parent- 
age. The want of monuments over the graves of most of 
them, the humble houses that they dwelt in, the plain cloth- 
ing that they wore, and strange to tell, the fact that they 
almost all labored with their hands, have been seized upon as 



FIRST PLANTERS OF CONNECTICUT. 417 

SO many marks that they came from the undistinguishable 
crowd of Enghsh peasantry, whose fathers, from age to age, 
had been the lowest subjects of feudal villeiny. Never was a 
conclusion more hastily formed, or supported by so few facts. 
Indeed, all the analogies that are within our reach tend to 
a contrary result. The early planters of Connecticut were 
neither serfs nor the sons of serfs. So far from this were 
many of them, that they could trace their descent backward 
through the line of the knights and gentlemen of England, 
by means of the heralds' visitations, parish records, and 
county genealogies, to say nothing of those family pedigrees 
that were often transmitted, as heirlooms, from generation to 
generation, particularly in the line of the eldest sons, to a 
remote day, and some of them to that wavering horizon where 
history loses itself in fable. Thus it turns out upon inves- 
tigation, that many a tomb that holds the dust of some 
pioneer whose memory is now cherished by a numerous pos- 
terity, yet cannot be distinguished from the surrounding earth, 
simply because no monument was placed above it to mark 
the spot, was entitled from the birth of its tenant, to be gar- 
nished with a coat of arms among the most honorable of 
those that swell the volumes of heraldiy, with devices to 
modern republican eyes so quaint and strange.* But what 
had they, who had spent their lives in waging war with 
the formularies of the past time that appeared so irksome to 
them — what had men who made it a part of their education 
to discard the factitious distinctions of the world, — to do with 
the gauntleted hand, the helmeted brow, the griffins, the 
lions, the strawberries and the storks of the herald's college ? 
The very fact that most of these symbols suggested to the 
mind the myths of paganism and idolatry, would of itself 

* From actual examination it appears that more than four-fifths of the early 
landed proprietors of Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor, belonged to families 
tliat had arms granted to them in Great Britain. Other settlers in various parts 
of Connecticut, at an early or later day, bearing family names that appear never to 
have borne arms, are believed to have been descended from the landed gentry or 
other genteel English families, such as Chittenden, lugersoll, Pitkin, Silliman, 
Lyman, O'msted, Upson, Cullick, Treadwell. 

27 



418 HISTORY OF CONISTECTICUT. 

make them objects of suspicion to many of the more strict 
order of puritans. 

Besides, not only their reh'gion, but their very physical 
condition, made it difficult for them to cherish with much 
care any thing that was not obviously connected with the 
great business of life. The ax of the planter, as its biting 
edge penetrated deeper and deeper into the vitals of the for- 
est, letting in the sunbeams to scare away the deer that 
roamed over the parks that had no palings or gates, other 
than the natural barriers of river, mountain, or ocean, while 
it strengthened the hand of him who wielded it and carved 
his individuality upon the stumps of oak or pine, to remain 
there after he should have been laid to rest, was yet no fit- 
ting instrument to record the vanity of the past time. What 
had he to do with the past ? The grim present was low- 
ering upon him with all its sharp and angular realities. In- 
dians, wild beasts, famine, cold, the diseases that lurk along 
the borders of new settlements, the French, the Dutch, the 
devil, and all the other calamities, actual or imaginary, that 
kept his faculties constantly stretched to their highest ten- 
sion, gave him little time to look backward. Life, to a pur- 
itan, was a warfare, commencing with the dawn of his own 
existence, to be waged with a stout heart and steady hand 
until that existence should be lost in a future, boundless and 
eternal. Little time had he for the soft reverie and day- 
dreaming that belong to a stage of society that blends inter- 
nal culture with easy circumstances and leisure-loving 
retirement. His business was to work. Other men retreated 
from the world to avoid its cares ; he fled to the solitudes of 
nature to begin life anew. I do not mean to say that this 
was universally true. A few families from old ties, not 
easily sundered, binding them to the country of their birth, 
still kept up a communication with the past ; but even in 
these exceptional instances it was lost in a few generations, 
and has only been revived within the last century, by resort- 
ing to the English repositories of such facts. 1 know this 
to be the case in all families now in New England that are 



THE FIRST PLANTERS OF CONNECTICUT. 419 

able to give any accurate history of their hneage, extend- 
ing beyond the first emigrants. Even the most illustrious 
names in our history, though readily traced in England, have 
been neglected to a degree that could not be accounted for 
by any one who should fail to keep in view the motives that 
actuated the emigrants, the necessities that surrounded them, 
the almost incredible amount of labor that they performed, 
and the estimate that they placed upon this life and the next. 

I have said that the first English planters of Connecticut 
were of no vulgar origin. Many of them were poor, many 
of them when they sailed for America were in the more 
humble walks of life ; but the planters, the substantial land 
holders, who began to plant those " three vines in the wil- 
derness," sprung from the better classes, and a large propor- 
tion of them from the landed gentry of England. This fact 
is proved not only by tracing individual families, but by the 
very names that those founders of our republic bore. Any 
one who choses to look at the catalogue of good old Eng- 
lish names that will be found at the close ofthis voulme, and 
compare it with any well arranged book of general heraldry, 
will see that they had either stolen their names, or that they 
were honorably descended. The first emigrants, it is true, 
brought with them many servants, but most of them were 
so from temporary causes, and were as unlike the stolid 
English laborer who then tilled, as his father and grandfa- 
ther had done before him, the fields of the opulent English 
landholder, as the seventeenth century was unlike the 
twelfth. 

This large infusion of the blood of the better class of 
English families might lead, were it philosophically consid- 
ered, to an explanation of much that has been thought to be 
new and peculiar in our institutions and our people. I 
should hardly expect to be contradicted by any well informed 
genealogist either in England or America, were I to express 
my belief that there is hardly a man now living whose 
descent can be traced to the early planters of Connecticut, 
who will not be found to be derived, through one branch or 



420 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

another of his pedigree, from those famiHes who helped to 
frame the British constitution, who elaborated by slow 
degrees the common law, who advocated the docti'ines of 
both with their tongues and their pens, or defended them 
with their swords. 

But it may not be clear to every mind how it happened that 
the early planters, if they were of such good descent, should 
have submitted to the most menial labors in an age when 
the gentry were, much more than now, a non-producing 
class. I reply that they were driven to it by the sternest 
necessity. They were poor; many of them had made great 
sacrifices to remove their families and their friends to Amer- 
ica. Laborers were few, and they had no money to trans- 
port them in such numbers as were needed in a new coun- 
try, to subdue the lands and render them habitable. Most 
of all, they were in want of mechanics. They needed 
houses to screen them from the weather, they must be pro- 
vided with cloth, which they could not import, and that 
cloth must be made into garments. Their horses could not 
go afield, or from town to town unshod ; nor could their sons 
and daughters live without shoes. From these stern neces- 
sities they learned the dignity of labor. If they could not 
procure carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, weavers, and 
clothiers, in any other manner, it was evident that they must 
learn these several employments themselves, and teach them 
to their children. They found themselves obliged to fell the 
trees and till the grounds, that they might have bread. The 
best planters, therefore, could find nothing degrading in the 
use of the ax or the plow. Besides, their religion and hab- 
itudes of mind taught them to look with reverence rather 
than with scorn upon all the useful occupations of life, as 
tending to help forward the human soul upon a journey, at 
the close of which it was to be invested with a robe of 
white and adorned with a crown of gold. 

Some of them had anticipated this, and had learned to prac- 
tise some useful art or mystery, either before leaving England, 
or while in Holland or Germany. Hence, Henry Wolcott, 



THE EARLY GOVERNORS. 421 

whose ancestors could be traced back as far as the reiErn of 
WilHam the Conqueror, does not appear to have withheld his 
daughter's hand from Mathew Griswold, because he was a 
stone-cutter and made monuments for the few who chose to 
retain a custom that Welles, Leete, and the whole Wyllys 
family appear to have despised. Roger Wolcott, too, a 
grandson of the emigrant, and himself the first of the line of 
governors bearing that name, a man of letters and elevated 
views, was proud to labor in the field as a husbandman, and 
on rainy days and in the long winter evenings, to fill up the 
intervals of study in plying the shuttle that his bright-eyed 
sons and rosy-cheeked daughters might be warmly clad. 
Governor Webster, and Governor Wells, if they did not la- 
bor with their own hands, taught their sons to toil. Governor 
Leete, at the very time that he discharged the duties of chief 
magistrate of the colony, and while he was secreting the re- 
gicides at his house, kept a country store for the accommoda- 
tion of his neighbors, and for many years earned a livelihood 
by keeping the records of Guilford. His sons were, it is be- 
lieved, all taught to work in the field. Governor Treat was 
as well skilled in the mysteries of plowing a corn-field, or 
mowing a hay-field, as in fighting the battles of the colony, 
or defending her charter. His father, Richard Treat, a 
patentee named in the charter, and one of the first gentle- 
men in the colony, daily crossed the Connecticut river in a 
boat, and lent his strong muscles to the task of breaking up 
the fallow land of Glastenbury. Winthrop submitted to the 
severest hardships in removing from Boston to Pequot (now 
New London,) in going from place to place to exercise the 
functions of a magistrate, in acting as mediator between con- 
tending parties, in procuring land titles and defending them 
for himself and for others, in purchasing mines, in perform- 
ing the office of physician, to say nothing of the burdens of 
public life. For these services he did not scruple to receive 
a fair compensation. If he did not labor with his hands, we 
may presume from what we know of his character, that it 
was from no fear of soiling them, but merely because his 



422 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

time was worth more in otiier departments of usefulness. 
Governor Law spent a portion of liis time in the cultivation 
of his plantation. 

I could multiply instances of names and individuals whose 
fame will not die while history has a niche still remaining 
for the statues of the fathers of the republic. I need only 
say, that high or low, through all the grades of society, labor 
was respectable, while idleness and vice were, as they have 
always been in ever}^ well regulated government, looked 
upon with suspicion. 

Thus frugal, industrious, honest, the fathers of the colony 
were unconsciously laying the foundation of a structure, im- 
perishable because built in accordance with the eternal laws 
of God's truth — imperishable, I mean, unless the indolence 
and hollow pretensions of their descendants shall dismantle 
its walls, and leave its solid frame-work to the injurious ac- 
tion of the elements. No people that hold labor in derision 
can maintain its position for three centuries. No servitude 
is so debasing, as that which nature is keeping in reserve for 
the descendants of a people who studiously inculcate in the 
minds of their children that it is better to be idle and hungry 
than to earn an honest livelihood by work. 

Are we to infer, then, from the fact that physical labor was 
cherished by all classes of our ancestors with such care — 
are we to infer that they had no grades, no distinctions, in 
their social fabric ? So far was this from being the case, 
that I have found in the records of no people worthy to be 
called civilized, the internal evidences of grade and rank ad- 
justed more carefully than can be traced in the files and 
books of the early documentary history of our own colony. It 
may be interesting to the reader to know into what classes 
and grades society was divided. 

1. The title of ''Honorable" was entirely unknown in our 
colonial records until 1685, and was subsequently for many 
years applied only to the governor, and seldom to him. Pre- 
vious to that date, however, the chief magistrate was some- 
times designated as " our Worshipful Governor," and " our 



EARLY TITLES IX CONNECTICUT. 423 

Honored Governor." Similar titles were also occasionally 
given to the Deputy Governor.* 

The next title was that of "Esquire," employed very 
sparingly for the first century after the emigration, and hav- 
ing about the same signification that it had in England, in 
the times of Elizabeth and James I. Those who had been 
possessed of landed estates in England, and had been liber- 
ally educated, younger sons of the nobihty, and the sons of 
baronets and knights, were addressed in writing by the addi- 
tion of esquire, placed after the name and before or after 
that of the place of I'esidence. When addressed colloquial- 
ly, the title was a prefix usually abbreviated into the mono- 
syllable, ">Sgi«'re." In Connecticut, this title was confined 
almost exclusively to the governor and deputy governor, 
until of the union with New Haven colony was effected in 
1665. The only exceptions found upon our records, are in 
the cases of Colonel Fenwick, of Saybrook, and John Win- 
throp, who was subsequently chosen governor. Indeed, it 
would seem that office of whatever grade did not necessarily 
make the official an esquire. Mr. Thomas Wells, was a magis- 
trate for seventeen years, deputy governor for one year, and 
was chosen governor for the second time, before he was dig- 
nified with that honorable title. f 

The next title to be noticed is that of " Gentleman" or, as 
it was usually abbreviated " Gent." This designation, which 
occui's but seldom upon our early records, is essentially an 
English title, is placed at the end of the name, and, like 
esquire, either before or after the place of residence. Aside 
from its general application, it was used in England especial- 
ly to designate that class who hold a middle rank between 
esquires and masters. This distinction seems to have been 
soon discarded in Connecticut. 

* This title appears to have been first applied in Connecticut to Major Andross ; 
and hy him to Governor Winthrop. 

+ Such titles as the following sometimes occur on our records, or in letters ad- 
dressed to the individuals named, and others, viz: " the Honored Major Talcott," 
"the Worshipful Captain John Allyn," "the Worshipful and much Honored 
John Winthrop," &c. 



424 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

The prefix of " Master" (Mr.) belonged to all gentlemen, 
including those designated by the higher marks of rank that 
have been mentioned above. Master corresponds very 
nearly in meaning to the English word, gentleman. In Con- 
necticut, it embraced clergymen, and planters of good family 
and estate who were members of the General Court ; those 
bred up at a university, and those of sufficient education to 
manage the general affairs of the colony, either in a civil or 
ecclesiastical way, and who had been sufficiently well born. 
Comparatively few of the representatives from the several 
towns, even though they might be returned year after year, 
were honored with this title. To be called master, or to 
have one's name recorded by the secretary with that prefix, 
two hundred years ago, was a more certain index of the 
rank of the individual as respects birth, education, and 
good moral character, than any one of the high-sounding ap- 
pellations with which many men of no merit whatever, in 
our day of swift locomotion, are content to cajole others in 
order that they may be enriched in their turn with the same 
spurious currency. It may be observed, by reference to our 
colonial records, that there were scores of men of good 
family and in honorable stations who still did not possess all 
the requisite qualities of masters. It was seldom that young 
men, of whatever rank, were called masters. 

The appellation of " »S/r," besides its ordinary use, was 
employed in a technical and limited sense to designate young 
gentlemen who wei'e under graduates at a university or col- 
lege. Hence, a son of Governor Winthrop, Mr. Sherman, 
or Governor Treat, returning home from Yale or Cambridge, 
to spend a vacation, would be greeted by their old companions 
as Sir Winthrop, Sir Sherman, or Sir Treat. 

" Goodman," was also a term of civility, and in a certain 
qualified sense might be called a title. Its application pre- 
dicated of him to whom it was given, a humble origin, and 
it comprehended the better sort of yeomen, laborers, tenants, 
and other dependents above the grade of servants, who own- 
ed a small estate, and who sustained a good moral character. 



MILITARY AND ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES. 425 

Our colonial records afford several instances of deputies to 
the General Court who were signalized by this mark of the 
public regard. The corresponding term as applied to the 
other sex, was Goodwife. 

Military titles were considered of a very high order, as we 
should naturally expect to find them in a colony that was in 
an almost uninterrupted state of war from the time of the 
burning of the Pequot fort, until the close of the American 
revolution. These titles, therefore, abound in our early 
colonial records, from that of captain down to that of cor- 
poral, and usually took precedence of the ordinary terms of 
address. These gradations of official rank were expressed by 
the usual abbreviations, and were seldom omitted. Previous to 
1654, the highest military office in the colony was that of 
captain ; and previous to 1652, the only captain in the colony 
was John Mason, whose jurisdiction extended throughout 
Connecticut. Captain Mason, and especially in later vears, 
Major Mason, when he visited the militia of the different 
towns, as he did at stated intervals, was gazed at by the boys 
and girls of the settlement with eyes of wide wonder, as a 
man to be reverenced, but not approached. 

Those titles of an Ecclesiastical nature were of course 
held in high esteem by our Puritan fathers, both in Old Eng- 
land and in New England. The clerical prefix of Reverend, 
does not occur upon our colonial records until about 1670;* 
the members of the profession bearing the simple titles of 
Mr., Pastor, Teacher, or Elder. Deacons were regarded with 
reverence, and were often employed in civil as well as in ec- 
clesiastical affairs. The title frequently occurs in the list of 
deputies and commissioners. In New Haven colony, where 
all the freemen were church members, the term or title of 
"Brother,'' was often used as a prefix to the names of per- 
sons appointed to civil office. 

I have said that many of the principal emigrants brought 
over servants with them from England. Such was the scarcity 
of laborers that, with the exception of the clergy, nearly all 

* The general term, " the Hevereii(l Elders," occurs much earlier. 



426 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

the original proprietors toiled earnestly upon their planta- 
tions, and frequently in the same field with their servants. 
But after the fibres of the state became more firmly knit, after 
the lands were partially cleared, when corn and money began 
to be more abundant, and- after the tide of emigration, check- 
ed for awhile, had brought a liberal supply of working-men 
who were willing to till the fields and make new conquests 
over the still abounding forests, society began to assume 
its old English features, and distinct generic orders were form- 
ed upon a somewhat stable basis long before the revolution. 

These orders were distinguished by the terms gentlemen, 
yeomen, merchants,* mechanics, and servants, or domes- 
tics. The lines drawn around these respective classes were 
not so strict as to be in the way of personal merit when it 
sought to rise ; but were sufficiently so to characterize the 
several grades. By this time the name of planter had almost 
entirely disappeared from our records, and that of farmer 
had been partially substituted. 

The term. Yeoman, was applied to that class of freehold- 
ers and planters who stood next in rank to gentlemen, of 
whose position I have spoken elsewhere. Some of the 
yeomen bore the title of master, and they were frequently 
called to discharge important public trusts. By this time, 
too, from the want of the guards that in England had always 
proved so favorable to the growth and continuance of privi- 
leged classes, very many of the descendants of the best 
families who emigrated to Connecticut, had glided imper- 
ceptibly from their position at that time, and had taken the 
middle stage. Many of the yeomen were as well born, and 
had as much pride of family, as the educated class. Indeed, 
the latter class was to a good extent made up from the yeo- 
manry of the more cultivated sort, who could easily resume 
the place that their ancestors had filled with such honor. 

* The early traders, especially in the small settlements and towns, of course 
did but a small business in that line, and were often freeholders and planters in 
addition. They subsequently became a distinct and very respectable class. 



THE ARISTOCRACY. 427 

The last remark is true of many of the merchants and 
mechanics of those times. 

The educated class filled the pulpit, the bench, the magis- 
tracy, the bar, and the medical profession, and constituted 
much the largest portion of the aristocracy, which grew 
more rapidly than ever before, from the time that the slave- 
trade first gave it nutriment, until it reached its zenith about 
twenty years after the close of the revolution. Many of 
the officers of the army, who were regarded with deep rev- 
erence by the people, were the principal pillars of the aris- 
tocracy. But the most thoroughly patrician body of men in 
Connecticut was the clergy, who exercised an almost un- 
limited authority over the inhabitants. I do not believe 
there ever was an aristocracy more deserving of respect, as 
well from the high tone of its morality as from the stateliness 
and general decorum that distinguished its members ; nor do 
I believe there ever was a yeomanry more independent and 
manly or less the victims of envy. 

This state of things continued, with such variations as be- 
longed to the gradual development of society, down to the 
close of Governor Smith's administration, when the freemen 
voluntarily laid aside the charter that they had never sur- 
rendered to the crown. 

With all this respect paid to orders and officials, growing 
partly out of their religious belief, that taught them to rever- 
ence all powers and dignitaries except such as they believed 
to be wrongfully applied, and partly out of those English pre- 
judices that they brought with them, in favor of gentle lin- 
eage and established authorities, they were obliged to live 
in a very humble and simple way for many years. Their 
dwellings were at first mostly constructed of logs. The 
planters who spent the first winter in Hartford, Wethersfield, 
and Windsor, had no better houses than the wretched huts 
that colliers now use upon our mountains as a temporary 
shelter while they are watching their coal-pits and drawing 
their coal. After Hooker and Wareham, with their com- 
panies, arrived in the valley, better dwellings were construct- 



428 HISTORY OF CONXECTICUT. 

ed, and in all the old towns a few frame houses were soon 
reared for the more wealthy and respectable citizens. The 
houses of the ministers were made as elegant and comfort- 
able as the circumstances of the people would afford. The 
dwellings of the governor and more wealthy magistrates and 
gentlemen, were some of them expensive. The house built 
by the Rev. Henry Whitfield, at Guilford, was of stone, 
with very solid and massive walls, that have withstood the 
action of the frosts and the other harsh influences of the 
climate, and will do so yet for hundreds of years, if man, 
that worst of all destroyers, will permit it to remain. It is 
the oldest house now standing in the United States, and is a 
fit memorial of the enduring fame of Whitfield, the founder 
of Guilford.* The house of Desborough was also of stone, 
but the walls were long ago thrown down. 

Most of the buildings in the colony, however, were con- 
structed of wood, and the better classes, after the first thirty 
years, lived in framed houses. These frames were made of 
heavy oak timbers, some of them eighteen inches in diame- 
ter. The rafters were larger than the plates, sills and beams 
of our modern country houses, and supported slit sticks 
called, in the rude architectural language of the day, " ribs," 
that were laid across them at I'egular distances, and to which 
long rent shingles of cedar were fastened with tough wrought 
nails. The sides of the building were covered w'ith oak 
clapboards rent from the tree and smoothed with a shaving- 
knife. These outer boards lapped over each other, and were 
fastened to the upright and horizontal timbers by nails much 
larger than those now used in the roof-eaving. Within, the 
sides of the rooms only were plastered, while the sleepers and 
the upper floor were exposed to view. The floors were of 
oaken plank. The windows consisted of two small leaden 
frames set with diamond-shaped panes, secured by hinges 
that opened outward, and were fastened against the side of 

* This venerable structure was built about the year 1G40, and, on account of 
its impregnable walls, was sometimes used as a block-house or fort by the 
settlers. 



THE DWELLINGS OF THE PIOKEERS. 429 

the house. When closed, the two sashes formed nearly a 
square. The outer doors of the mansion were of double 
oaken planks, made as solid as a single piece of timber by 
nails or spikes driven into them in the angles of diamonds.* 
When these gates of his domestic paradise were secured at 
night by the heavy wooden bars that had stood thi'oughout 
the day leaning against the wall, the planter and his family 
had little cause to fear the entrance of wild beasts or Indians, 
and other burglars for many years there were none in Con- 
necticut. Indeed, after the Indians had been tamed and the 
wolves and bears driven farther off by the gradual destruc- 
tion of their old haunts, the tenants of these humble Arca- 
dian castles slept peacefully from one year to another with- 
out even barring or bolting their doors. 

The rooms of the early habitations were seldom more than 
seven feet in height, so that the sturdy emigrants, and their 
sons, who had rather added to the stature of their fathers 
than substracted from it by athletic and wholesome exercise, 
in wood and field and camp, during the period of life when 
the bones are enlarging, and the muscles are assumincr a 
hardened and fibrous texture, could hardly stand upright upon 
the kitchen floor without brushing the fur of their bear-skin 
caps against the timbers overhead. 

The most indestructible part of the whole edifice was the 
huge stone tower that occupied the centre, rising out of the 
ridge, and called a chimney. Its foundations were about 
twelve feet square. The fire-places, as they were very pro- 
perly termed, especially the ones most in use, were of such 
dimensions that the wood could be brought from the forest, 
taken from the cart, and heaped upon the ponderous andirons 
in great quantities. In the coldest weather, a large log of 
maple, oak, or walnut, was placed at the back of the fire- 
place, and other smaller ones laid upon it. The andirons 
were brought in front of this formidable battery, that was 
made still more durable by a log about eight inches in diame- 
ter, called a fore-stick. The smaller wood was then care- 
* See Lambert, 201. 



430 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

fully put on with pine knots, birch bark, or other dry fuel, in 
the middle. The quantity of wood consumed in a single day 
in the more severe winter weather, was enormous ; and the 
ventilation caused by the keen currents of air that found a 
free entrance through the crevices of the building, would be 
terrific to a housewife of modern days. The fire was by no 
means small even in summer, and after the toils of the day, 
the family would gather around it even while the doors were 
wide open, and the cry of the frog from the marsh, and the 
whippowill from the home-meadow, stole upon their seclu- 
sion with associations cheerful or sad as suited the tempera- 
ments and moods of the various members composing the 
circle.* 

Conversation was sometimes startled and chilled into sud- 
den silence, in the early and more superstitious days, by the 
gleam of a meteor seen through the diamond-shaped window 
panes or open door, as it lit up the little patch of sky that 
lay clear and open behind the branches of the trees. If, 
when the free laugh was ringing from the heart of the boys 
and girls at some grotesque account of adventures, old or 
new, a malicious screech-owl, seizing the loved opportunity 
when the face of the moon was veiled by a cloud, chanced 
to mingle his mocking merriment with theirs, what wonder 
if a shivering sigh bore quick witness how well they remem- 
bered that the devil was as fond as ever of his old pastimes 
in solitudes and desert places ? I much doubt if King James 
I., had he been living in such extreme retirement, would not 
have found his teeth chattering and his hair bristling at a 
like signal from the father of lies. Even Sir Walter Raleigh 
would have knocked the ashes out of his pipe and mused ; 
and my Lord Coke, would have forgotten for a moment, how 
necessary it was to his own proper development to ruin Sir 
Francis Bacon. In a much later age. Dr. Johnson himself 
might have found his hand arrested in the act of conveying 
to his mouth the thirteenth cup of tea, and might have been 
strangled in the midst of a sentence in which the oat-meal 
* Lambert, 202. 



BKEAKFAST AND DINNER. 431 

cakes of Scotland, or the unfortunate Chesterfield, formed 
the theme of vituperation. Possibly the reader's nervous 
equilibrium might be shaken at a much less provocation, even 
in the midst of a hearty fit of laughter at the bigotry and 
superstition of the puritans. 

There were a few houses in the colony of a more aristo- 
cratic type than the one that I have selected to represent 
the dwellings of the early inhabitants. Among these, I can 
only stop to name Governor Eaton's of New Haven, built in 
the form of a capital E, with its numerous windows, its stack 
of chimneys with their twenty-one fire-places ; and that of his 
friend, Mr. Davenport, scarcely less imposing.* 

The meals of the early planters were such as befitted Eng- 
lishmen who were remote from all commercial relations, in a 
new country, where nature, with few exceptions, reduces all 
her sons to the common necessity of providing for their own 
sustenance. They ate and drank what she provided for them, 
and thanked God that it was so bountiful and so nourishing. 

o 

The breakfast of the farmers often consisted mainly of a 
soup made of salt meat and beans, and seasoned with savory 
herbs. This dish was called " bean porridge," and has long 
been the fruitful subject of verse. Tea and cofliee they had 
none during the seventeenth century. Their drink was chiefly 
beer and cider, after their orchards were sufficiently grown 
to afford them such a luxury. f 

The dinner was a much more substantial meal. A large 
Indian pudding, with an appropriate sauce, often constituted 
the first course ; and after that, boiled beef and pork ; and then 
wild game, with potatoes ; and then succeeded turnips and 
other vegetables native to the climate. They had succatosh 
in the season of it ; and in the fall, samp. Pumpkins were 
cooked by them into various dishes. Dinner was served at 
noon. 

* The residence of Governor Eaton stood upon the north corner of Elm and 
Orange streets; that of Mr. Davenport was on the west side of Elm street, near 
State street, New Haven. The latter was built in the form of a cross. 

+ As early as 1 654, laws were passed regulating the sale of " strong beer and 
cider." 



432 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

At supper — afterwards called tea — they also ate very sub- 
stantial food. It was almost always cold, with an occasional 
variation of cakes made of corn-meal, rye, or buckwheat. 
These cakes, however, were oftener prepared for breakfast. 

Their table furniture was plain. Pewter was the more 
ordinary metal in use, but silver was often seen glittering 
upon the same table with the baser metal. Silver tankards 
and beakers were to be found in the houses of nearly all the 
wealthy planters of good family.* 

The tables of the clergymen and magistrates, not except- 
ing the governor, were furnished with similar fare to that 
above described, with various shades of difference in the ar- 
rangement ; and the mode of serving it up, indicated more or 
less refinement. In after times, the tables of genteel fami- 
lies had more ambitious furniture and better viands, and 
never was food more wholesome and never did it better do 
its office of nourishing and strengthening the body, than dur- 
ing the period of New England history that preceded the 
revolution. 

They had no wheeled carriages or wagons until the mid- 
dle of the eighteenth century, and very few until the revolu- 
tionary war was closed. f The bridegroom who went to a 
neighboring town to be united with a partner whom he hoped 
to find through life a " help meet for him," whether he was 
gentleman or yeoman, rode on horseback, and carried her 
home on a pillion behind him. 

The first inhabitants of Connecticut, as we have seen, were 
for the most part a very industrious, honest, and religious 

* From an examination of the early inventories, I infer that most of the arti- 
cles used for culinary and domestic use were made of pewter — such as spoons, 
platters, pitchers, cups, plates, pans, bottles, &o. The silver articles named in 
these inventories, are flaggons, bealiers, tankards, spoons, cups, knee buckles, and 
shoe buckles. Tin and crockery are seldom spoken of. Tlie Rev. J. B. Felt, of 
Boston, in his excellent work, " The Customs of New England," gives a descrip- 
tion and history of hundreds of articles of household use, and of many other 
things tending to illustrate pioneer-life in New England. 

+ The first pleasure carriage (a chair) ever brought into Litchfield, was owned 
by Mr. Matthews, the English Mayor of New York, who was confined in that 
town as a prisoner of war in 1776. 



EXTEEMES. 433 

people. They have been accused of naiTow-mindedness and 
bigotry. To a certain extent this must be allowed to be 
true. Their bigotry was of the peculiar kind that often 
springs up suddenly in minds naturally enthusiastic and self- 
sacrificing. When they rebel against customs and practices 
so long established, they are often considered by those who 
are wedded to them to be a part of the moral and social con- 
stitution of man. Reformers always show their horror of 
the evils, real or imaginary, from which they have emanci- 
pated themselves, by going to another extreme so radical and 
marked as to constitute a boundary-line that may be readily 
seen. Indeed, such extremes are sooner or later the very 
badges and colors distinguishing the party that wears them. 
If the cavaliers wear long hair, the Cromwellians must of 
course be shorn. As soon as the cavaliers have discov- 
ered the bald heads of their opponents, they begin to ap- 
ply unguents to their long locks and use all the stimu- 
lants that will be likely to give them, as nearly as possible, 
the appearance of so many Absaloms. When once it was 
known that many of the clergy had resolved not to conform 
to some part of the church ritual which they thought excep- 
tionable. Queen Elizabeth proceeded to take measures at 
once to make still more stringent requisitions. Such is man's 
moral organization that he must correct extremes by other 
extremes. A similar law appears to prevail in the physical 
creation. 

The bigotry of puritanism differed from the established 
bigotries of England not so much in degree as in kind. Both 
the great parties tljat divided that country were, so far as I 
can discover, equally intolerant, but their intolerance aimed 
at different things. The adherents of one abhorred a con- 
venticle as if it had been a pestilence ; those of the other, 
fled from the sight of the surplice as if it had been a mask of 
leprosy. One party, in seeking to discard the forms that it 
regarded as the relics of idolatry, came at last to shudder at 
the sight of the Cross, and in mockery quartered troops of 
soldiers in sacred chapels and fed the horses of the dragoons 

28 



4:34 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

from the altars of venerable churches ; the other, with a 
holy horror, sacrificed human victims to appease its wrath. 
The narrow-mindedness of the one party, drove it to spurn 
the elegancies of classical learning, and to turn away from 
Shakspeare with loathing ; while that of the other, looked 
askance at the grandest epic in the whole treasury of letters, 
because it had been bequeathed to the world by a puritan. 

The puritans abhorred profanity and debauchery, and 
hence, associating the vices of the cavaliers with the dresses 
that they wore, they assumed a new costume as unlike the 
old as their imaginations could devise ; the cavaliers, in self- 
vindication, and to show how defiant they were of the puri- 
tans, placed their chapeaus upon their heads with a still more 
jaunty air, and curtailed their already short cloaks still the 
more. 

Whoever sees anything to worship in any or all of these 
evidences of human imperfection, is at liberty to choose from 
the temple of prejudice the idol that he deems most worthy 
of his adoration. For my part, I can see nothing to admire 
in them, but much to shun. In doing so, I condemn not the 
cavaliers for clinging to the past, nor the puritans for break- 
ing away from its thraldom ; but rather the bad passions of 
our common nature that have so long resisted the influences 
of reason and the benign charities of the christian faith. 
They are to be treasured up as lessons. 

The inhabitants of Connecticut, from the enjoyment of a 
larger liberty than could exist in Massachusetts under the 
administration of a more aristocratic and strictly provincial 
government, were thus taught to bestow wpon those who dif- 
fered from them a greater measure of liberality. Still they 
were not free from the taint of superstition. They had left 
England with a main design to enjoy their own religious 
tenets. With this view they had bought their wild lands ; 
with this view they established a peculiar form of govern- 
ment. They looked with extreme jealousy upon the en- 
croaching power of popery, and many of them regarded 
episcopacy as only a modified form of Catholicism. As they 



FAST AND THANKSGIVING. 435 

had been at such pains to enjoy their own opinions, they 
knew no other rule than the characteristic one of that age, 
excluslveness, or, if that would not avail, coercion. They 
resolved to keep out all religious sects from their limits, or, if 
they ventured to cross their border, to compel them to con- 
form. They determined, too, that if it were possible the 
very festivals as well as modes of worship that were associa- 
ted in their minds with oppression and arbitrary power, 
should be suppressed, and that other public days should be 
substituted. 

The public days of the people of Connecticut were two, 
viz., Fast, and Thanksgiving. 

The Fast was appointed at irregular intervals, usually on 
account of some special or threatened calamity which was 
designated by the General Court, or by the governor at the 
time of the appointment, care being always taken not to 
have it on Good Friday. On fast day, no food was cooked 
in the houses of the inhabitants, nor did the more exemplary 
church members eat any regular meals until after the sun 
went down. They had public worship on that occasion as 
they did on Sunday, and spent the time in self-examination, 
humiliation, and prayer. The sins of the people were made 
the burden of the minister's discourse, and most earnestly 
did he pray that he and his flock might be delivered from 
temptation.* 

But the grand festival of the people, and the one in which 
they took the liveliest interest, was Tl tanks giving.^ For 
many years it was appointed only on occasions of special in- 
terest ; but subsequently the legislature fixed upon Novem- 
ber of each year, after the crops had all been gathered 
in, and during that shadowy and hushed season, the 
twilight of the year, when the veil of the Indian summer 

* In Jan. 1644, it was ordered that there should be a day of fasting and 
humiliation observed throughout the plantations every month. A similar order 
was issued in August, 1676. The regular annual fast was pot appointed until 
after the revolution. 

+ The first Thanksgiving Day ever appointed in Connecticut, was on the 18th 
of September, 1639. 



436 nisTORY OF Connecticut. 

heightened by partly concealing the beauty of the south- 
western hills. It is difficult to conceive at this remote day, 
when the fruits of their labors alone remain, while the hard- 
ships that they endured are forgotten, what happy associa- 
tions clustered around this festival. After the first forty years 
had passed by, and it had begun to assume the character of an 
established institution, the hearts of the old and the young throb- 
bed with anticipation as it drew near. The preparations for the 
dinner were very substantial and bountiful. It was usually 
celebrated at the old homestead and in the house of the patri- 
arch of the family. It was held on Thursday, and generally late 
in the month. Thanksgiving week taxed the energies of the 
whole family. The stalled ox and the fatted calf were killed. 
The plumpest chickens and turkeys and geese were selected 
from the barn-yard, the yellowest pumpkins from the barn, and 
the finest potatoes and turnips from the cellar. The children of 
the pioneers, who were scattered throughout the colony, now 
turned their thoughts and faces homeward. The son who 
had left his father's roof in early manhood, and who longed 
once more to see the apple-trees that he had planted, and to 
receive the paternal blessing, now commenced his journey, 
with his wife and a whole swarm of sun-browned boys and 
ruddy girls. The brothers and sisters all met and all brought 
their children. Sometimes there were so many that the 
house would scarcely hold them ; but the dear old grand- 
mother, whose memory could hardly keep the constantly 
lengthening record of their births, and whose eye, dim with 
tears and age, could never see which child to love the best, wel- 
comed each with a trembling hand and an overflowing heart. 

The early part of the day was spent by the male members 
of the family in attendance upon public worship, where the 
old emigrant, with the white frost of his eightieth winter in 
his hair, sat more erect than he was wont, and could not, 
with all his humility, refrain from dividing his attention be- 
tween the discourse and the long row of boys, who, in spite 
of the strictness of puritan discipline, waited impatienly for 
the "Amen," that was to set them at liberty. 



THANKSGIVING. 437 

On their return from the meeting-house, dinner awaited 
them. It may be presumed that there was not a single dys- 
peptic in the whole group, and that they did good justice to 
the viands. 

After their repast, the family gathered around the blazing 
hickory fire, the children adding to its volume the shells of 
the walnuts and butternuts that threw into it, without 
disturbing the conversation of their parents, who recounted 
each in his turn the incidents that they had given variety to 
the year. Indian wars ; the depredations of the Dutch ; the 
plot of that wretch, Peter Stuyvesant, to exterminate the 
whole English population ; the wolf and bear hunts ; the mar- 
velous stories of rattlesnakes ; and, I must admit, sometimes 
still more marvelous manifestations from the spiritual world ; 
apparitions, ghosts, visitations from the devil ; the execution 
of Goodwife Knapp, and the scorn with which she looked 
upon her accusers, were fruitful themes to while away the 
evening. Games, too, helped to divert the attention of the 
children from subjects likely to disturb their sleep. 

As the evening deepened, and the little ones began to nod 
upon their benches in the chimney corner, the old family 
bible was brought, and, after a portion of it had been read, 
the voice of the grandsire, tremulous with emotion rather 
than with age, was heard returning thanks to Almighty God 
for his infinite mercy in times past, in preserving the lives 
and health of the circle gathered around him, and supplicating 
him to keep them from temptation, and to multiply their de- 
scendants as the stars of the sky and the sands of the sea. 

Such was Thanksgiving, a time-honored, venerable cus- 
tom, that has gradually extended itself into the most distant 
part of our great republic. The occasion of it, only remem- 
bered now by the antiquarian, its more forbidding features 
worn away as the years have left behind them in their flight 
the noxious shades of superstition, its genial warmth, its hal- 
lowed domestic and historical associations, still survive in the 
bosom of him who can trace his descent from the fathers of 
Connecticut, whether his foot presses her soil, or whether on 



438 HISTOEY OF CONNECTICUT. 

the borders of the great lakes and rivers of the west, in the 
vast forest, or in the billowy grass of the prairies, he joins 
with the voices of nature in returning thanks to the author 
of his being. 

Though Thanksgiving was the only general festival, the 
reader is not to conclude that there were no other occasions 
of festivity and rejoicing among the people of Connecticut. 
Among the more primitive and rural portions of the popula- 
tion, there were husking, apple-pearing, and quilting parties ; 
the social, neighborly gatherings around the great winter- 
fires ; and the sleigh-rides, balls, and weddings, which were 
not confined to any particular class or locality. 

I shall not attempt to describe a wedding-party among our 
ancestors. Indeed, the ceremony and its accompanying con- 
gratulations and rejoicings on the part of attendants and 
friends, were as varied then as now. True, the era of bride- 
stealing* has gone by ; and the rustic serenade of horns and 
kettles is becoming an obsolete entertainment. Yet, amidst 
all the artificial forms and polite blandishments which modern 
taste and refinement have thrown around this most interest- 
ing ceremony, it were well to ask if there has been a corres- 
ponding advance in the motives and purposes that influence 
the union of heart and hand in bonds indissoluble ? Formerly, 
at least, it was understood by both parties that the wife was 
to be " a help meet for her husband." On this point the min- 
ister who joined them was wont to be very emphatic. f 

I have intimated that balls were among the amusements of 
the past in this colony. This, it is to be presumed, was or- 
dinarily confined to the young people ; and did not always 
meet with the hearty concurrence of the elder and more 
sedate portion of the community. The expenses attending 
such gatherings, were made to conform to the condition and 
circumstances of the people as they then were, and certain- 

* A Poem, by Mrs. Emma Willard, entitled, " Bride-Stealing, a Tale of New- 
England's Middle Ages," is preserved in Everest's " Poets of Connecticut." It 
gives a poetical account of one among many instances of " stealing the bride" that 
occurred in the early days of the colony. 

t Bushnell's Discourse. 



FUNERAL CUSTOMS. 439 

ly would not be thought extravagant in these days * It was 
long the custom in Connecticut, for the young men and wo- 
men of a parish to celebrate the occasion of the settlement 
of a new minister by a ball on the evening following the day 
of his ordination or installation. This was termed the " or- 
dination ball," and was sometimes conducted with such pro- 
priety and decorum that church-members and even the new 
pastor would honor the ball with their presence. They ulti- 
mately came to be regarded as a scandal, and were at last 
suppressed by public sentiment. 

The customs at funerals in different parts of New England 
were for many years somewhat peculiar, and were long since 
modified or abandoned. The distribution of gloves, rings, 
and scarfs at funerals prevailed to such an extent, that in 
1721, the Legislature of Massachusetts passed a law against 
the usage. Town authorities complied with the fashion so 
far, that they distributed these articles at the burial of their 
paupers, and the expense was charged over to the town. At the 
funeral of the wife of Governor Belcher of Massachusetts, in 
1736, more than one thousand pairs of gloves were distributed 
among the attendants.! In the form of an association recom- 
mended by the Continental Congress, in 1774, the articles of 
mourning for both sexes are specified ; with the pledge that they 
" will discountenance the giving of gloves and scarfs at funer- 
als." In Connecticut, or rather in certain parts of the colony, 
these and other practices, now obsolete, were long continued. 

It has doubtless often puzzled those who are curious in 
such matters to shape to their imaginations what fashioned 
clothes their early ancestors wore, and how they looked in 
them. This is not an easy task, and yet something can be 

* Morris, in Ms "Statistical Account" of Litchfield, speaks of a dance in that 
town in 1748, where a violin was used for the first time in the place, and adds — 
*' The whole expense of the amusement, although the young people generally at- 
tended, did not exceed one dollar, out of which the fiddler was paid." Yet the 
parents and old people declared they should bo " ruined by the extravagances of 
the youth." 

+ " Customs of New England." 



440 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

said upon costume that may not be uninstructive to the 
general reader. 

I have said that some of the emigrants brought with them 
from England silver-plate and articles of household furniture 
that betokened their rank in England. The same remark 
will apply to wearing apparel. Yet, except on public days, 
even the best planters must have dressed with great simpli- 
city during the first twenty or thirty years after the colony 
began to be settled. I have also stated that labor was the 
common lot, and that even gentlemen did not shrink from it. 
As soon as they could, they raised their own sheep. In this 
way a staple material was provided for the winter clothing of 
males and females. The wool sheared by the hands of the 
planters, his sons, and servants, was, by his wife, daughters, 
and female domestics, spun and woven into cloth, and then cut 
into garments by the skillful matron for the members of her 
household. Flax, too, and hemp were cultivated with much 
care, and supplied them with materials that they were obliged 
to shape into garments that would serve them for the 
warmer months of the year. 

I do not mean to assert that our fathers were indifferent 
in matters of dress and personal appearance. The gentry 
indulged in silks, velvets, and beavers, and there are still pre- 
served many specimens of their taste in the shape of rich 
lace ruffles, elegant embroidery, silk and velvet caps, and 
costly ornaments of gold and silver. 

Small-clothes were worn by our forefathers from the ear- 
liest times, and were made of sheep and deer skin, as well as 
of cloth.* Until within the last sixty years, boys were 
dressed in these stiff habiliments as soon as the attire of their 
childhood had been laid aside. These small-clothes under- 
went various modifications of fashion. They were usually 
fitted very closely to the person, and those men were thought 
to be very fortunate whose forms were such that they could 
wear small-clothes above the hips without appurtenances and 
stockings above the calf of the leg without garters. 
* Felfs " Customs of New England," 137. 



COSTUME. 441 

Shoes with sih^er or brass buckles were worn with the 
stockings or hose ; and buckles of the same materials secur- 
ed the small-clothes and stockings at the knee. 

The coat was in partial use at the time of the emigration, 
but the doublet was more gererally worn. The coat then in 
fashion came down directly in front below the knee, and was 
fastened to the very bottom with buttons or clasps, and 
sometimes with hooks and eyes. The skirts were very full, 
and were made to hang off from the person by being stiffen- 
ed with buckram.* In 1715, and perhaps earlier, this gar- 
ment was made with pockets opening from the outside, pro- 
tected by ample flaps. The coat worn by wealthy gentle- 
men, and persons of official rank, was profusely decorated 
with gold lace. Instead of the broad collar of the present 
day, it had only a narrow hem that exposed to view the 
plaited stock of fine linen cambric, with its large silver 
buckle at the back of the neck.f The close-bodied coat, 
with its short waist and flexible skirts, was not introduced 
until 1790, or about the middle of the reign of George III. J 

Cloaks were also used by the fathers of New England. 
They were of a variety of colors, but the most fashionable 
were red. 

Hats were at first for the most part made of wool, but 
beaver hats soon came into use, and prevailed for inany 
years. Of whatever material, they were high-crowned, and 
in the form of a sugar-loaf The brims were so broad as to 
make it necessary for the wearer to hold them on firmly with 
the hand when the wind was blowing. This fashion continu- 
ed until about 1700, with some slight changes. The grace- 
ful hat worn by Charles I., and his cavaliers, with its plume, 
was sometimes seen even in New England. The military 
cocked hat, called also the Monmouth hat, began to be worn 

* Lambert's Hist. New Haven Col., 198. + Lambert, 198. 

i The skins of animals wei-e much used for garments among the early settlers. 
In the inventory of Mr. William Whiting, one of the wealthiest citizens of Con- 
necticut, (who died in 1G49,) are the following items: " two raccoon coats, one 
wolf skin coat, four bear skins, three moose." 



442 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

in this country about the year 1670. The average width of 
the brim at that date was six inches. This inconvenient 
width probably suggested the plan of cocking it or turning it 
up and fastening it against the side of the crown. It was 
first cocked on one side only, then on the opposite side also, 
and in the reign of queen Elizabeth a third side was turned 
up — making the three-cornered cocked hats worn by gentle- 
men in New England from the year 1732 to 1779. Even 
gentlemen's sons of the age of fourteen years, wore the trian- 
gular hat. When gentlemen paid their respects to ladies, or to 
each other in public, they took it off, or in the language of 
the day, "vailed it." 

Watches were worn by gentlemen in New England as 
early as 1655; but this did not become general until about a 
century later. 

Rings were worn as ornaments in Connecticut from the 
earliest times. Ear-rings and thumb-rings were also in use.* 

The authorities of New England were originally opposed 
to the fashion of wearing long hair. In Massachusetts, long 
hair was made the subject of legislative enactments. But 
throughout New England, it is believed that laws regulating 
dress were not usually enforced as other statutes were. The 
beard was at first worn in New England by the upper class- 
es, but gradually diminished until 1685, when it was closely 
shaven except in particular instances. 

Wigs were worn in New England soon after the middle 
of the seventeenth century. They appear to have been of 
various colors, patterns, and dimensions, according to the 
taste of the wearer or the fashion of the particular era or 
locality. Judges, magistrates, lawyers, and gentlemen gen- 
erally, were among the first to adopt the custom. Many of 

* The ring presented by Charles I., to the grandmother of tlie Elder Wiuthrop, 
was, it will be remembered, dexterously used by the son of the latter in procur- 
ing the charter of Connecticut from Charles II. In the inventory of the widow 
of Colonel John Livingston of New London, (1736,) are mentioned, " four gold 
rings, one silver ring, one stoned ring, a ring with five diamonds, a pair of stoned 
ear-rings, a stone drop for the neck, and a red stone for a locket." Caulkins' 
Hist, of New Loudon, p. 3G5. 



FEMALE COSTUME. 443 

the clergy subsequently fell in with it and carried it to ex- 
tremes ; though others talked, preached, and prayed most 
earnestly for the suppression of the "unchristian habit."* 
To a man of commanding person and features, passed mid- 
dle age, the full flowing white wig often gave a venerable 
and dignified appearance. Such appendages, however, when 
donned by young men and lads, as they frequently were, be- 
came mere caricatures of their original design. Wigs were 
often powdered, and fell in long luxuriant curls upon the 
shoulders. Of course the supply of human hair of light 
color, or indeed of any color, was far from being equal to 
the demand. Hence, horses and goats were shorn of 
their superfluous appendages, and the flaxen locks of chil- 
dren were cut off", and the hair thus obtained was washed in 
a peculiar kind of bleaching suds and then spread upon the 
grass to whiten like linen. f This singular fashion seems to 
have gradually died with the waning of the last century, 
though a few individuals retained the use of their wigs 
until a more modern date. 

The early costume of the women of Connecticut seems to 
have exhibited as great a variety in style and taste as that of 
the other sex. Ever ready to conform to the peculiar cir- 
cumstances in which Providence may have placed them, the 
mothers and daughters of New England cheerfully submitted 
to the privations incident to their condition. Here, in a 
primitive wilderness, with little or no society except that of 
men and women as earnest and self-sacrificing as themselves, 
we may readily infer that for many years the punctilious 
forms of etiquette, and the spirit of fashionable display, were 
almost entirely undeveloped. Still, even in what has been 
characterized as the "home-spun age," the matrons and 
maidens were not wanting either in taste or skill in fitting 
and perfecting their own garments. Their natural love of 

* Mr. Felt says of Eliot, the celebrated apostle to the Indians — " He imagined 
it [the use of wigs] to be an abundant source of calamities which had befallen our 
land." 

+ Felt, 184. 



444 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

neatness, order, and beauty, would of itself enable them to 
impart elegance and grace to the most rustic costume. 

As the outward circumstances of the planters gradually 
improved, and the proportion of wealthy emigrants increas- 
ed, the wings of commerce were proportionably extended to 
supply their growing wants. Many of the superfluities and 
luxuries of the old world were brought to our shores for such 
as were able and disposed to purchase them. The fashions 
of the father-land were in a measure revived. Silks, satins, 
laces, and other costly fabrics, were among the articles im- 
ported, and were in great demand among the rich and tash- 
ionable ladies of those times. 

I design to speak only of some of the peculiarities of dress 
among the women of Connecticut in former times. 

Trailing goums, were more or less in use both in England 
and America for upwards of a century, ending some sixty 
years ago. These gowns were liberally set off with flounces 
and furbelows, with a trail from half a yard to a yard and a 
half in length, sweeping the floor or street when allowed to 
have its full course. They were, however, often " trolloped" — 
that is, fastened up at each side by loops ; frequently how- 
ever, the trail was carried by the lady upon her arm.* 
Among the most exclusive class, especially in England, one 
or two pages were employed to carry the trail. Thus the 
poet Cowley, remarks — " They cannot stir to the nexi room 
without a page or two to hold it up." 

During the last century, "hooped skirts" were common. 
The form of them varied at different periods. In 1735, they 
projected all around the bottom of the skirts like a wheel ; 
and in 1745, they were increased at the sides and lessened in 
front. During the latter year, a pamphlet was published in 
England, entitled, "The enormous abomination of the Hoop 
Petticoat, as the fashion now is." In 1757, after some de- 
pression, they expanded on the right and left. We are in- 
formed that they were exceedingly inconvenient for entering 
pew doors ; in fact, they could have no ingress or egress at 

* Lambert, 200, 



FEMALE COSTUME. 



445 



such narrow apertures, except by taking a slight of hand ad- 
vantage of their form, which was no doubt very gracefully 
done.* 

Towering head dresses appear to have been in use in Eng- 
land long before the emigration. It is stated that in 1416, 
the state apartments were enlarged to accommodate such 
kinds of attire. When reformed under Edward IV., in the 
fifteenth century, it was a cone two or three feet high, with 
a silk streamer hanging down behind. Somewhat similar 
head dresses, though probably not so tall, and varying in 
shape, were worn by the ladies of Connecticut down to the 
period of the revolution. They consisted of muslin, crape, 
lawn or lace, and constituted a chief item of ornamental 
attire. 

Other articles of female dress might be mentioned, that 
would be regarded as unique at the present day, but the 
limits of the work will not afford room for any very extended 
treatise upon a topic in itself so interesting. 

* See " Customs of New England," pp. 168, 169. 




THE OLD WHITFIELD HOUSE. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE ESTABLISHED RELIGION OF CONNECTICDT. 

While the religious opinions of the early founders of the 
colony of Connecticut, cannot with propriety be left out of 
its history, still, these topics have been treated of at so great 
length by other authors, that I shall give in this work only 
a brief outline of such facts as appear to be necessary to a 
thorough understanding of the character of our institutions. 

It has been said in a preceding chapter, that the main 
motive that led to the settlement of New England, was a 
desire on the part of the emigrants to worship God, in a way 
that they believed would be most acceptable to Him. The 
doctrines held by at least a large number of the divines, who 
lived and died in the faith of the established church of Eng- 
land, and whose writings are among the brightest ornaments 
of biblical literature, did not differ materially from those that 
formed the basis of puritan belief. There were many as 
strong Calvanists in the episcopal church of that period as 
the emigrants were.* The grand points of dispute, the 
wedges that split off the emigrants from the main English 
trunk, took their shape and edge not so much from differ- 
ences in doctrine, as in the forms of church government. 
The English church had the arm of the nation to enforce 
conformity, and those puritans who could not yield to the 
demands made upon them, had no refuge but in flight. 

The organization of the churches in Connecticut was 
very simple. The ministers, as has been stated in a preced- 

* Brande (Encyclopedia, p. 88,) says — " The articles of the English church 
have been represented by different parties, as including both to Arminianism and 
Calvinism." Bishops Davenport, Sanderson, Hall, and the archbishops Ussher 
and Leighton, were Calvinistic in their doctrines, though among the staunchest of 
episcopalians. (See Coleridge's " Aids to Reflection," pp. 208, 209.) Bishops 
Taylor, Whitby, Ward, and others, maintained the Arminian tenets, and wrote 
and preached against Calvinism. 



THE CLERGY OF CONNECTICUT. 447 

ing chapter, were the leaders each of his own people. Most 
of the pastors brought then- churches with them from Eng- 
land, and of course had a personal acquaintance with their 
members and with their families. This was true of 
Hooker, Davenport, Whitfield, Blackman, Wareham, and 
others of the principal divines of this colony. These cap- 
tains of hundreds and captains of fifties were men of no 
ordinary mould. Every one of them possessed some strik- 
ing traits of character, that have left their impress upon the 
age in which they lived ; not distinctly defined to the eye of 
the careless observer, but to him who has familiarized him- 
self with the figures that people the cloud-land of the past, 
these shepherds, standing upon the eminences whence their 
flocks could be seen and called by name, as they fed 
upon the green slopes, and cropped with the sweet nutri- 
ment ; the herbs medicinally bitter that grew close by the 
poisonous flowers of temptation, these good shepherds, no 
longer shadowy, are seen through the long twilight of his- 
tory to retain their characteristics of form and feature, as if 
they were still in the midst of those labors that ripened them 
for immortality. So subtle and keen is the vision of the 
true and faithful scholar, whose whole heart is in his work, 
that it can pierce beyond the curtain that darkness lets 
down before the eyes of other men ; can penetrate through 
the vapors of prejudice and ignorance, as the rainbow 
seems to penetrate the less ethereal sphere of the storm- 
cloud that it illuminates. To him, and to him alone, is it 
given, to see as in a mirror, the great and the good pass in slow 
review before him, so that he shall be able to distinguish 
them and sketch them upon a canvass that shall be imper- 
ishable. To him they are not all to be set down in the dead 
and despised catalogue of fanatics. On the other hand, to 
him the fearless Davenport, with his noble bearing and 
unshaken resolution ; Hooker, with his beautiful face, deep- 
toned voice, and hand that " could put a king in his 
pocket ;" Wareham, whose self-accusing, shrinking eye was 
often averted from the battlements of the heavenly city, 



448 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

whither his finger pointed the way for others ; Blackman, at 
the sound of whose farewell the sensibilities of his people 
gushed out in sparkling tears, as the rock that was smitten 
by the prophet ; Whitfield, whose clear, contemplative soul 
resembled a mountain lake, reflecting all the objects, wild or 
tame, that help to form its solitary margin, yet never darken 
it, so as to conceal its calm depths from the dreamer who 
wanders there ; and Stone, who alternately disputes upon 
points of church discipline, and prays for more copious show- 
ers of God's grace ; to such a scholar, and to him alone, all 
these and many more who might be named as conspicuous 
members of the great household of faith, are seen as indivi- 
dual men setting up the standard of civil liberty, by the 
entrance-gate of the temple that they reared to the Most 
High. It is difficult to estimate the influences of such men, 
as the early clergymen of Connecticut, in laying the 
foundations of a nation like ours. 

In every church organized according to the old puritan plan 
that prevailed from the first in Connecticut, there was a pastor, 
a teacher, a ruling elder, and deacons.* In some of their 
churches there were exceptions to this rule, growing out of the 
necessities or peculiar situation of the people ; but the prin- 
cipal settlements all had a full complement of these several 
functionaries. If the church had only a few members and 
very limited resources, it was sometimes obliged to content 
itself with a ruling elder and deacons. The pastor, teacher, 
and elder were all ordained with equal solemnity. 

The specific duty of the pastor was to exhort or preach 
to the people ; or, in the language of that day, " to work 
upon the will and the affections." He was expected to 
possess the gift of eloquent speech, and to cultivate the win- 
ning graces of oratory ; most of all, the sinewy, athletic 
strength that could make effective use of the fire and the 
hammer to break the flinty heart. f 

* Ovveu's " Gospel Church," pp. 86, 116, 120, 128, 129 ; Hooker's " Survey," 
part ii. pp. 4, 20. 

+ Hookers Survey, part ii. pp. 19, 21 ; Cambridge Platform, chap. vi. 



CHUECH OFFICERS. 449 

The teaclier, on the other hand, was the private expounder 
of the divine law, the counsellor whose learning, deep piety, 
calm judgment, and refined experience could be depended upon 
in doubtful matters. He had immediate charge of all compli- 
cated and knotty doctrinal questions, and difficult cases 
of conscience. He was the nursery teacher, who prepared 
the feeble reason and illuminated the darkened understand- 
ing for the school of church-fellowship. He also recalled 
the backsliding christian, and set his face toward Zion. If 
there was no teacher in any particular church, the pastor 
supplied the offices of advocate and counsellor.* 

The ruling elder represented that part of the executive 
power that did not fall specifically within the province of 
the pastor. He was a kind of vice-executive officer. His 
busjiiess was to keep strict watch over all the brethren and 
sisters, and see that they demeaned themselves in an orderly 
and godly manner. It was his duty to warn the careless, 
admonish the wayward, and. to present the incorrigible be- 
fore the proper tribunal for discipline. He was also to go 
from house to house like a ministering angel, and visit the 
sick and the afflicted, and pray with them. In the absence 
of the pastor and teacher he was also to pray with the con- 
gregation on the sabbath, and other stated days of worship, 
and expound the scriptures to them. 

The office of deacon is frequently alluded to in the new 
testament,! though different denominations have differed as 
to the position and duties of the officer called by that title. 
Among the English puritans and their successors in New 
England, the specific duties of the deacons were, as stated 
by Owen, to provide for the poor of the parish, and to man- 
age all other affairs of the church of a secular nature ; such 
as providing for the place of the church assemblies ; pro- 
curing and distributing the sacramental elements ; " keeping, 
collecting, and disposing of the stock of the church, for the 
maintenance of its officers, and incidences, especially in the 

* Owen's '-True Gospel Church," 121, «fec. 
+ Acts, vi ; 1 Tim. iii. 8, 13, &c. 
29 



450 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

time of trouble or persecution."* It was furthermore the 
duty of these officers, according to the same author, " to 
acquaint the church of the present necessity of the poor; 
to stir up particular members of it into a free contribution 
according to their ability ; to admonish those who are neg- 
ligent herein, who give not according to their proportion ; 
and to acquaint the elders of the church with those who per- 
sist in a neglect of their duty."f 

In regard to the qualifications of persons for this office, 
those specified in 1 Tim. iii. 8, 13, were deemed requisite 
and indispensable. The candidate having been duly ap- 
proved, was solemnly set apart by prayer and the imposi- 
tion of hands, according to the directions contained in Acts 
vi. 6. 

The number of deacons was not uniform, but was regula- 
ted mainly by the size of the church and congregation. Two 
or four were the more usual numbers ; though in some of 
the churches there were seven — usually styled the "seven 
pillars," whose duties appear sometimes to have partaken of 
those of elders as well as of deacons. 

During the first twenty years after the settlement, there 
was little or no difference of opinion among the ministers 
and churches of Connecticut, as to the requisites and terms 
of church-membership. The applicant was not only 
required to give his solemn pubhc assent to the confession 
of faith, and to enter into covenant with God and His peo- 
ple faithfully to discharge all public and private christian 
duties, but he must give a minute account of his religious 
experience, and of the radical change that had taken place 
in his heart and life. 

About 1655, however, a strong party began to manifest 
itself, who were for admitting all persons of regular life to a 
full communion in the churches, upon their making a gene- 
ral public confession of their belief in the christian religion, 
without any inquiry with respect to their experience, and 

* " The True Nature of a Gospel Clmrcli and its Government," by Rev. 
John Owen, D.D.,p. 184. 
t Owen, 185. 



OWNING THE COVENANT. 451 

were for treating all baptized persons as members of the 
church, upon their " owning the covenant." * 

This subject was carried to the General Assembly, and 
that body applied to the General Courts of the several neigh- 
boring colonies for advice. The result was, a general 
council was called, which assembled at Boston, June 4, 1657. 
This council gave an elaborate answer to the twenty-one 
questions that had been propounded to them concerning the 
matters in controversy — the principal of which had special 
reference to church-membership and baptism. f The sub- 
stance of their decision was, that it was the duty of adults, who 
had been baptized in infancy, " to own the covenant they 
made with their parents, by entering thereinto in their own 
persons ;" that the church was obligated " to call upon 
them for the performance thereof ;" and in case of refusal, 
they were liable to be censured by the church. Those "own- 
ing the covenant," and not scandalous in their lives, were 
allowed to have their children baptized. J 

This decision seems not to have been acceptable to the 
churches of Connecticut, and certainly did not end the con- 
troversy. In 1662 the General Court recommended the 
same measures to the churches ; and many of them subse- 
quently adopted the practice, though others opposed it stead- 
fastly to the last. 

This was the origin of what has since been known by 
" the half way covenant," which a hundred years later was 
so powerfully opposed by Edwards, Whitfield, Buel, and 
other eloquent " reformers" of that day. 

The churches of Connecticut acted upon the belief that 
the bishops and presbyters were only different names for the 
same office, and that all pastors who were regularly devoted 
to the ministry of the gospel were bishops in a scriptural 
sense. They also held that in accordance with the early 

* TrumbuU, 297, 298. 

+ These answers were afterwards printed in London with the title, " A Disputa- 
tion concerning church members and their children." 
t Trumbull, i. 303, 304. 



452 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

practice of the church, every pastor was for the most part 
confined to his own church and congregation, whom he 
could keep under his own eye, and who might have the ben- 
efit of his personal example. This rule, however, did not 
prevent the pastor of one church from exchanging with his 
neighbor of the next settlement at convenient intervals ; but 
even this exchange was only for the ordinary religious ser- 
vices. It was for some time after the emigration held to 
be irregular for any minister to administer the sacrament or 
the rite of baptism, except in his immediate jurisdiction.* 

The churches of Connecticut did not look upon ordina- 
tions as constituting the essentials of the ministerial office. 
Ordination was nothing more than inducting the pastor elect 
into office, or recommending him and his spiritual labors to the 
blessing of his Divine Master. The form of ordination was 
very simple. If there was a presbytery in the church 
where the ceremonial was to be performed, the laying on of 
hands was done by them ; if not, the church selected from 
its members a number of the most venerable and exemplary 
to act as elders for the occasion. This mode of ordination 
and these views as to its relative importance and signifi- 
cance, were by no means peculiar to the Connecticut 
churches. They wei'e supported by the high authority of 
St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, Zanch, Bucer, and even by 
the great Melancthon himself, an interpreter of the scrip- 
tures unsurpassed since the days of Paul for close ratiocina- 
tion, and dispassionate, calm judgment. f 

The Connecticut churches were congregational. In other 
words, they held that the right to choose and to settle its own 
minister, discipline its own members, and to perform all juri- 
dical functions, was vested in each individual church, and 
that no external organization, whether under the name of 
presbytery, synod, general council, or assembly, had any 
power to interfere with the exercise of that right. They 
might advise and counsel, and their opinions were held to 
be entitled to reverence ; but they could neither command 

* Hooker, Trumbull, Owen. t Hooker's Survey. 



THEIR REGARD FOR THE BIBLE. 453 

nor compel. The individual church, through its regular 
channels of communication, and with the bible for its guide, 
was, under God, to be the ultimate arbiter of all matters 
arising within its own jurisdiction.* Whether they always 
rightly interpreted the bible, is to be settled by men who are 
most competent to judge of matters too mysterious and 
solemn for the pen of the historian. However this may be, 
I suppose it will not be questioned, even by their bitterest 
enemies, that they read it with as much avidity as any class of 
men ever did, and earnestly sought to follow its teachings. 
Indeed, the bible was the constant companion of the 
early inhabitants of Connecticut. The emigrant studied 
it by day and by night. He taught it to his children 
with the same constancy that supplied them with daily 
food, and the burden of his prayers was, that they might 
understand it in its deepest, most spiritual significance. 
The bible was the pole-star of the colony. Its precepts are 
written in letters of light upon our early records. Its doc- 
trines were discussed in the field where the laborers bent over 
the ridges of the corn ; and in the heart of the great forest, 
while the woodman sat in the still noon leaning against the 
trunk of the oak that he had felled, he pondered its precepts 
in secret. It was carried into the battle field by the soldier, 
and with an honest joy when the victory was won, its 
promises were read anew. Children were named from its 
great prophets, poets, and heroes. 

At the time of the union of New Haven and Connecticut 
there were in the colony only seventeen hundred families, or 
between eight thousand and nine thousand inhabitants. To 
preach to this small number, the services of about twenty 
ministers were put in constant requisition. This would 
make on an average one preacher to eighty-five families. In 
several of the new plantations, thirty families maintained a 
minister; and out of the large towns, forty families was 
thought to be a good congregation.! When it is remember- 

* Trumbull, i. 284 ; Cambridge Platform, ch. xvi. t Trumbull. 



454 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

ed that most of these clergymen were gentlemen of uncom- 
mon powers of mind, of elegant manners, and thorough-bred 
scholars, in an asje when scholars were rare, it will be seen 
that no people have valued religious instruction more than 
our fathers did, and that seldom if ever in the history of the 
world has a people been more faithfully taught. At no time 
since that day has there been such a class of educated gen- 
tlemen in New England as were the emigrant pastors of 
Connecticut. The generation of clergymen who succeeded 
them, were of course their inferiors in education, as the 
institutions of a new country are less thorough than those of 
an old one. 

I have said that the qualifications for church-membership 
caused many dissensions among the churches. As it has 
been thought important to give these disputes a prominence 
in times past, that seems not to have belonged to them ori- 
ginally, I am hardly at liberty to pass them by without some 
notice. They possess an interest to the antiquarian that the 
general reader has never yet found in them, and those honest 
men who have collected and perpetuated them in books, as 
they were known to be friendly to the fame of the state, 
have evinced, it must be admitted, not only a desire to tell 
the whole truth, but a noble indifference to the opinion of 
the world and a confidence in the greatness of those men 
whose characters could bear to be set in so unfavorable a 
light and still elicit the admiration of posterity. I doubt if 
there can be found in the history of any other people so 
many industrious proclaimers of the ecclesiastical bickerings 
and neighborhood, nay family quarrels, of the founders of its 
institutions, as have been set forth by respectable writers, 
who have spent their lives in trying to do honor to Connecti- 
cut in this apparently equivocal way. I say, apparently 
equivocal, for doubtless the time will come when such minute 
details of the imperfections of human nature will be regarded 
with more indulgence than now, as they will be seen to have 
indicated a transition from the dead calm of formalism, to 



REV. HENRY SMITH. 455 

the lively, healthful atmosphere of religious toleration, and 
philosophical inquiry. 

The first of these controversies, as has been stated in a 
former chapter, originated at Wethersfield, and might never 
have happened had Mr. Phillips, the pastor of the first emi- 
grants, been induced to accompany them to Connecticut. 
They had at first no settled minister, and for several years 
were in a state of confusion that was beyond the reach of 
their best spiritual advisers, until the sagacious Davenport 
suggested that as they could not live together they should 
separate. This good counsel led to the settlement of Stam- 
ford, and could not have been continued beyond the spring 
of 1641, when Mr. Coe and Mr. Ward, with their party, re- 
moved from Wethersfield. The particulars of this quarrel 
can hardly be known at this remote day, as no documentary 
memorial of it is known to exist. 

In 1641, and after Prudden, Sherman, and Denton had all 
preached to the people, and in time had sought other and 
more quiet fields of labor, the Rev. Henry Smith entered 
upon his duties as the first regular pastor in Wethersfield. 
He was a gentleman of good family, and he is, aside from the 
interest that he excites in us as the patriarch of one of the best 
sustained and most accomplished families in New England, 
entitled to our regard as a gentleman of uncommon culture, 
refinement, and firmness. He probably arrived in Boston in 
1637, as he and Mrs. Smith were admitted into the commun- 
ion of the church at Watertown on the 5th of December, 
of that year.* At what precise period he removed to Con- 
necticut, is not certainly known, but he was a resident there at 
the time of the division of the lots on the east side of the Con- 
necticut river, in 1639-40, as he received a farm of consider- 



* Mr. Smith brought over from England, among other articles of value, a silver 
tankard with his family coat of arms, beautifully engraved upon it. This venerable 
piece of silver, probably tvi^o hundred and fifty years old, is still in excellent con- 
dition, and is now in the hands of his great, great, great grandson, Wm. Mather 
Smith, Esquire, of Sharon, the only son of His Excellency, John Cotton Smith, 
the last charter governor. 



456 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

able size at that time, which descended to his son Samuel.* 
He did not find his task in Wethersfield a very easy one, as 
there were still left some restless spirits in his church and 
congregation. He was, from the beginning of his ministry, 
the victim of suspicions the most unfounded, and accusations 
the most bitter. 

In 1643, an application was made to the General Court, 
involving charges against him that were found on investiga- 
tion to be false. f His ministry terminated with his death in 
1648. 

Just before the decease of Mr. Smith, died Mr. Thomas 
Hooker, the pastor of the church in Hartford. No minister 
in New England possessed such unbounded sway over popu- 
lar assemblies as did this truly wonderful man. He was born 
at Marshfield, in the county of Leicester, England, in the 
year 1586, and graduated at Emanuel College, Cambridge, 
at a very early age. He was soon promoted to a fellowship 
there, and was not long in acquiring a high reputation for 
learning and ability. He was called " the light of the New 
England churches," and well merited the appellation ; for in 
his clear manner of setting forth the truth, his intimate ac- 
quaintance with the doctrines of the bible, his bold eloquence 
and the pungency of his illustrations, he had few equals and 
no superiors in New England. Hooker was to Connecticut 
what Cotton was to Massachusetts, and what Davenport was 
to New Haven. They were all men of such marked traits 

* Dr. Chapin's Hist, of Glastenbui-y, p. 34. 

t The committee appointed by the General Court to investigate these charges, 
reported on the I3th of April, 1643. This committee, among other things, say, — 
"We find also that many of those who put up their names for removal, were not 
induced thereunto by any dislike or engagement they have in the present quarrels, 
but /or want of lots and other considerations." 

On the 10th of November of the same year, the General Court ordered that — 

" Mr. Chaplin, for divulging and setting his hand to a paper called a declara- 
tion, tending to the defamation of Mr. Smith, is fined £10. 

" Francis Norton, for setting his hand to the said writing, is fined £5. 

" John Goodridge, for setting his hand to said writing, 40s. 

" Mr. Plum, for preferring a roll of grievances against Mr. Smith, and failing of 
proof in the prosecution thereof, is fined £10." 



EEV. THOMAS HOOKER. 457 

of character, that perhaps no one could assign to any one of 
them the highest place. Davenport might be compared, in 
his opposition to the passions of the people and in the solidity 
of his character, to one of those sheer promontories that the 
mariner sees as he sails along the New England coast, defy- 
ing the storms and frowning down upon the white waves 
that recoil from its base ; Cotton, to a limpid river flowing 
between steep hills that feed its current with the unfailing 
resources of bubbling springs gushing out of the natural fis- 
sures of the rocks, while they crowd it into a channel that 
allows it more depth than surface, with here and there a 
basin among the more lofty and retreating mountains, that 
expose, indeed, a broader area where the warm beams of the 
sun-light may bathe themselves, yet take away nothing from 
the boldness of the shore ; Hooker, to the same river further 
on in its course, its volume increased by the tributaries that 
drain larger and wilder regions — sometimes turbid, too, with 
the. added violence of the spring floods, having a strength 
and vastness of sweep always self-sustained and convincing. 
Hooker was not only the most attractive pulpit orator in 
New England, but he was equally distinguished by the fer- 
vency and pathos of his prayers, which, we are told, were 
like Jacob's ladder " wherein the nearer he came to the end, 
the nearer he drew to heaven." He was well skilled in the 
governing motives of men, and on that account was much 
consulted in matters relating to church discipline and the 
general management of ecclesiastical affairs. In his chari- 
ties he was very munificent. His chief conflict was with 
himself, in striving to subdue the irregularities of a tempera- 
ment naturally vehement and impetuous. In his domestic 
and social relations he was very happy, and few men have 
been more deeply loved. 

In person, Hooker was tall and elegant, his features classi- 
cal, his eye thoughtful yet piercing, his voice rich and of 
great compass, and his manner graceful and majestic. He 
possessed physical as well as moral courage in a high degree. 
Even Mason was overawed by the noble bearing of this 



458 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

soldier of the cross when following the little army, that was 
about to go in search of the Pequots, to the brink of the 
river that he might dismiss them with his benediction, his 
eye flashed as he bade them " in martial power to fight the 
battles of the Lord and of his people." 

He died at Hartford, of a fever, on the 7th of July, 1647, 
in the 61st year of his age. "I am going to receive mercy," 
said the patriarch to a friend who stood by his bedside ; 
then closing his eyes tranquilly, a smile playing about 
his lips, he took his leave of a world that satisfies least 
of all a soul of such boundless energies and such an ethereal 
mould.* 

Aside from Davenport, the founder of New Haven, that 
place was for many years distinguished for the wisdom and 
ability of its clergymen. Of these Hook, Street, and Pier- 
pont are among the most eminent. James Pierpont was 
born at Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1659, graduated at Har- 
vard in 1681, and was ordained at New Haven in J686. 
Descended from an illustrious family, and gifted to a high 
degree with intellectual endowments, eloquent speech, a 
graceful person, handsome features, and manners the most 
courtly and winning, he appears to have been from early 
youth too intently occupied with the mission of saving the 
souls of his fellow men, ever to think of himself. I suppose, 
of all the clergymen whose names belong to the early history 
of New England, Pierpont was the most lofty and pure in 
his aspirations, and of the most spiritual temper. With none 
of the sternness of Davenport, without the despondency of 
Wareham, and free from the impetuous moods that proved 
such thorns in the pillow of Hooker, his words, like the live 
coals from the altar in the hand of the angel, " touched and 
purified the lips" of those who listened to his teachings. 
His moral nature was so softly difllused over his church 
and people, that they appeared to lose themselves in 
the absorbing element, as dark forms seem sometimes in 

* See Biography of Rev. Thomas Hooker, by Rev. E. W. Hooker, D.D. 



EEV. JAMES PIERPONT. 459 

pleasant summer days, to dissolve in an atmosphere of liquid 
light.* 

* 1. Robert dc Pierrepont, who came to England with William the Conqueror, 
and possessed estates in Suifolk and Sussex, amounting to ten knights' fees — all of 
which ho held of "William, Earl of Warren. 

2. William, de Pierrepont, son and heir, (time of William II.) 

3. Hugh de Pierrepont, son and heir, (time of Ilonry II.) 

4. William de Pierrepont, owner of the Lordship of Halliwell, in Lancashire. 

5. Sir Robert de Pierrepont, knight. 

G. Henry de Pierrepont, of Holbeck, Woodhouse, county of Nottingham. 

7. Sir Henry de Pierrepont, of Holme Pierrepont, in the right of his wife, 
Annora, sole daughter of Michael Manvers, Lord of Holme. He died A. D., 
1291. 

8. Sir Robert de Pierrepont, of Holme Pierrepont, governor of New Castle, 
married Sarah, daughter of Sir John Ilering, knight, of Derbyshire, 1308. 

9. Henry Pierrepont, of Holme Pierrepont, only son and heir, married Mar- 
garet, daughter of Sir Wm. Fitz Williams of Emly, knight. 

1 0. Sir Edmund Pierrepont, son and heir, knight, married Joan, only daugh- 
ter of Sir John Monbouchcr, of Nottinghamshire, knight. He died in 1370, and 
was buried at Holme Pierrepont. 

11. Sir Edmund Pierrepont, son and heir, married Frances, daughter of 
Thomas Kingsman. He was knighted in 1422. 

12. Sir Henry Pierrepont, son and heir, married Ellen, daughter of Sir 
Nicholas Langford, knight. 

13. Henry Pierrepont, only son and heir, married Tomasin, daughter of Sir 
John Melton, of Ashton, Yorkshire. 

14. Sir Francis Pierreponi, knight, son and heir, married Margaret, daughter 
of John Burdon, Esq. 

1.5. Sir William Pierrepont, son and heir, married Jane, daughter of Sir 
Richard Empson, knight. He was knighted in 1513. 

16. Sir George Pierrepont, son and heir, married Winnifred, daughter of Wil- 
liam Thwaites, of Essex. He was knighted in 1547, and died 1564.* 

17. William Pierrepont,^ of Brereton, Lancaster county, son and heir, married 
Elizabeth. 

18. James Pierrepont, who died at Ipswich, Mass. 

19. John Pierrepont, born in London in 1619 ; admitted a freeman in Massa- 
chusetts in 1652; representative in 1672; died Dee. 7, 1682. He married 
Thankful Starr, and had five sons, viz., Benjamin, Joseph, Ebenezer, James, and 
John. 

20. Rev. James Pierpont, of New Haven, born in 1659 ; and died in 1714. 

* Sir George Pierrepont, hnd a son Robert (older than William,) who was created Earl of Kings- 
ton in 1628. His lordship's last male descendant, Evelyn Pierrepont, second duke of Kinjrston, died 
in 177."? without issue, when the honors and estates ought to have descended to the heirs of William, 
who were then nnd still are in America. Instead of tliis, however, they went to the nephew of the 
Duke, Charles Meadows, Esq., who assumed the surname of Pierrepont, and was created Earl 
Manvers. 



460 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

The next great controversy in order of time, and one of 
the most important that ever occurred in New England on 
account of its duration, the bitterness of feehng by which it 
v\^as characterized, and the exalted character of the men who 
participated in it, was that which commenced in the first 
church in Hartford about the middle of the seventeenth 
century. It appears to have originated in a difference of 
opinion between the Rev. Samuel Stone, pastor of that 
church, and Mr. William Goodwin, its ruling elder, on some 
nice points of Congregationalism. It was claimed that per- 
sons had been baptized and admitted to the church in an 
informal manner, and without the proper qualifications ; 
though Dr. Mather intimates that it was difficult, even at 
the time of the controversy, to ascertain what were the pre- 
cise points of variance. The dispute, however, spread like 
a contagion, until nearly all the churches in the colony be- 
came more or less affected by it. The local and secular 
affairs of societies, towns, and of the entire commonwealth, 
were to a great extent influenced by the all-absorbing topic 
of thought and conversation. The General Court frequently 
interposed its advice and orders, with a view to quiet the 
agitation, and ecclesiastical bodies as often met to consider 
and decide upon the merits of the controversy ; but for a 
long time without avail.- About the year 1640, in conse- 
quence of the death or removal of many of the princi- 
pal belligerents, both the church and state, so long the vic- 
tims of discord, were again restored to comparative good 
order. 

Among those who were disaffected with Mr. Stone and 
steadfastly adhered to Elder Goodwin throughout the contro- 
versv, were Governor Webster, Mr. CuUick, Mr. Bacon, and 
Mr. Steel, all leading men both in the church and in the 
colony.* 

By this time the church at Wethersfield had again become 
ripe for dissensions. Probably within two years after the 
death of Mr. Smith, but at what precise date is not known, 

* Trumbull, i. 296, 301. 



[1656.] CONTROVERSY AT WETHERSFIELD. 461 

the Rev. John Russell was called by the church and ordained 
there, so far as appears, without opposition. The first part 
of his ministry was quiet and seemed to promise well for 
the future. But the Hartford controversy gradually ex- 
tended into his church, and some other elements of a very 
combustible character, were made to feed the flame. Among 
other things, Mr. Russell appears to have been a witness 
in a law suit, and to have testified in a way that was severely 
animadverted upon by Lieutenant John HoUister, a promi- 
nent member of his church. Mr. Russell held the same 
views with Mr. Stone of Hartford in relation to church gov- 
ernment and discipline, and without giving the offending 
member an opportunity to have a hearing, or even the bene- 
fit of a vote of the church, he privately excommunicated 
him in 1656, and afterwards refused to give his reasons for 
such a summary proceeding when they were demanded by 
Mr. Hollister.* Had Mr. Russell been anxious to test the 
practical workings of his plan of church government, he 
could hardly have chosen a more favorable subject than one 
of Captain Mason's military officers — a gentleman of un- 
doubted probity, an experienced member of the General 
Court, and a man not likely to be outdone by Mr. RussellT in 
the steadiness of his purposes and the obstinacy of his resist- 
ance. Besides his own natural force of character, Hol- 
lister had married a daughter of Richard Treat, Esquire,t one 
of the most formidable opponents in the colony, and coyld 
bring into the quarrel an array of names that the General 
Court would hardly treat with contempt. 

The whole town was of course thrown into a state of 
excitement at this unusual war waged by a clergyman 
against a member of his church. A petition was prepared 
and signed by the excommunicated member, four other male 
and six female members of the church, and thirty-eight 
others, probably all members of the society, many of whom 
(as will be seen by referring to the subjoined note and docu- 

* Dr, Chapin's Hist, of Glastenbury, p. 35 ; Cothren's Ilist. of Woodbury. 
t Chapin, 185. 



462 



HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 



ment,* ) were men of high position — praying the Court to 
relieve the applicants from the burden of a minister who had 
"taken a scandalous and grievous oath, acknowledged by 

* In this singular paper, a copy of which is here given, it will be seen that the 
church members signed by themselves, first the individual aggrieved, followed by 
the other male members ; then the female members, with Mrs. Treat, the wife of 
Richard and mother of Governor Treat, at the head, and next to her, Mrs. Hollister, 
her daughter, the wife of the principal applicant. Tliese male and female names are 
separated with as much decency as their owners would have observed in the meet- 
ing house on the Sabbath. The remaining signers were not church members. 

" To the right Worshipful, the Governor and Deputy Governor, the Worship- 
ful Magistrates, and Deputies, assembled at Hartford in This Honored Court, 
your humble petitioners wish increase of all felicity. August 17th, 1658. 

" We, inhabitants of Wethersfield, are necessitated to implore the aid and 
assistance of this Honored Court, and thereafter by right of an order made last 
March ; for Mr. Russell, as we conceive, is not our settled and approved minister : 
First, He having sent us a writing, in the Spring, to provide for ourselves lest we 
be destitute, and we having professed, we look upon ourselves as free by answer 
of our committee, nor can we close with him, and are afraid to venture our souls 
under his ministry, he having given so great a scandal to the Gospel of our Lord 
Jesus Christ by such a grievous oath, acknowledged by himself to be ambiguous, 
rash, and sinful, and what more may be made evident. Therefore, we, your 
humble petitioners, humbly crave that we may not be held in bondage, but may 
use our liberty in procuring a minister who may be fiiithful in the administrations 
of the Gospel, and inoifensive in his conversation ; otherwise, we, your humble pe- 
titioners, shall be forced to midergo whatever inconvenience or damage may come 
upon us or ours, for we think him altogether unfit for our comfort. And we, 
your humble petitioners, humbly crave your help, for we profess it lies as a heavy 
burden upon our consciences, and we know no rule that he should compel us to 
it. And if your humble petitioners find acceptance and relief, you will more 
engage us to all loyal subjection to you, so humbly we take our leave of you, and 
rest yours to be commanded. 



[Members of the church.] 


[Not members of the church.J 


[Not members of the church.] 


John Hollister. 


Thomas Curtis. 


John Deming, Jr. 


Thomas Wright, Sr. 


John Chester. 


Thomas Gilbert. 


John Deming, Sr. 


Samuel Boardman. 


Thomas Williams. 


John Edwards, Sr. 


Thomas Standish. 


John Sadler, 


Richard Smith, Sr. 


John Kilbourn. 


John Belden. 




Richard Treat. 


Emanuel Buck. 


Alice Treat. 


John Nott. 


Hugh Wells. 


Joana Hollister. 


Thomas Lord. 


John Harrison. 


]\Iary Robbins. 


Thomas Wright, Jr. 


Benjamin Crane. 


Margaret Wright. 


John Riley. 


Mathias Treat. 


Rebeccah Smith. 


Richard Smith, Jr. 


AVilliam Colefoxe. 


Dorothy Edwards. 


James Wright. 


Philip Goffe. 



[1658.] 



THE WETHEESFIELD CONTROVERSY. 



463 



himself to be ambiguous, rash, and sinful," who had himself 
cut asunder the ties that had bound him to the church, and 
who still remained " a heavy burden upon their consciences." 



[Members of the church.] 



[Not members of the church. J 



James Wakeley. 
Joseph Smith. 
Michael Griswold. 
George Wolcott. 
Thomas Wickham. 
Nathaniel Graves. 
John Wadhams. 



[Not members of the church.] 

James Treat. 
Samuel Wright. 
Jonathan Smith. 
John Curtis. 
James Boswell. 
Henry Crane. 
Lewis Jones. 

Mr. Hollister was a native of Bristol, England, and emigrated to New Eng- 
land about the year 1642. In 1643, he was admitted a freeman at Weymouth, 
INIassachusetts, and was a representative in the General Court of Massachusetts, at 
the session immediately following. In June, 1644, he was a member of the jury 
of a particular court held at Hartford, he having a short time previous to that date, 
become a resident of Wethersfield. Ke attended as a deputy to the General Court 
of Connecticut for the first time, at the September session of the last named year, 
a post to which he was subsequently re-elected fourteen times. In October, 1654, 
Mr. Hollister was appointed by the legislature a member of a committee " to press 
men and necessaries in each town," for the expedition to the Narragansett country 
against Ninigret. Three years after, he was placed on the committee with the 
deputy governor and magistrates, " to attend any occasions as to the state of the 
commonwealth in reference to the Indians." Divers other legislative and popu- 
lar appointments evince the high respect with which he was regarded both by 
the people and by the authorities of the colony. When he first came to Con- 
necticut he bore the prefix of "Mr.," which was superseded in 1657 by the 
military title of " Lieutenant." He died in 1665. 

Mr. JoAnDemtng', Sen., was ajuror of the particular coui't at Hartford in March 
1643, and in December, 1645, was a member of the General Court from Weth- 
ersfield, an office to which he was chosen at twenty-five semi-annual elections. 
He was one of the patentees named in the charter of 1662. Among his de- 
scendants, who are numerous and highly respectable, I may name with honor 
the late Julius Deming, Esq., of Litchfield. 

Thomas Wright, Sen., was descended from John Wright, Bishop of Bristol, 
Winchester, and Litchfield. He was a cousin of Mr. Nathaniel Wright of Lon- 
don, one of the assistants of the first General Court of Massachusetts, before the 
government was removed to Boston. He first appears in New England, at 
Swamscott, (now Exeter,) in company with Col. John Wheelwright, 1629. It 
appears by the deed given by the Sagamores to Col. Wheelwright and others, 
that Mr. Wright was one of his company. In 1 640 he was admitted a freeman 
at Exeter. In 1643, Sept. 4th, his name next occurs as one of the jurors of a 
particular court at Hartford. For some years previous to his death, he was a deacon 
in the church. The descendants of Thomas Wright are very numerous. He 



ic4 HI5TOBY or CO^rSTCnCTT. 

MeanwhAe that nothing might be wanting to the success of 
the petition, HoUister was again returned a member of the 
Court* that he might present it and advocate it with such 
earnestness as onlv an interested party could be expected 
to do. 

At the session of the Court held on the ISth of August, 
165S, HoUister presented the petition and obtained an order 
that Mr. Russell shoiJd give the reasons for his conduct 
towards " ye Lieut, HoUister." Those reasons were to be 
delivered to HoUister or be placed in the hands of a mes- 
senger of his who should call for them at the elder's house. 
In case this order should not be complied with, Messrs. Sam- 
uel Wei!? and Samuel Boardman were ordered "seasonably 

\rs5 ibe zui'j^iszr.iT of lie Wr^is oc HanfoT'd ani Ii;-i-haeid. and ci most d the 
BSHHrin ihe West3n a^vi MSddic Siasffi. Tiere are iMwEring. cf hk deseendbnts, 
tao ■^ ■ niiiHi. ^ ^iree membas of CoaigFes, tJunse goreznocs, and tro judges oi 
Aesapfene euHsL 

Jaim Edmmrdt, S^l, was aten a jtatr of pstieHlar eoertB, and iras a deputy 

BB1643. 

CV|*"™ Jtim (Jhata- wsb Sm ti ue a dy a depatf and wtiinininnrT, and vaa aae 
of &e Boet em^temt aSoeas of W^hezsfidd. 

g«— — > BaarimmM vas a It^x Hn g raaa in die eokny Sat uea^^baitf rears ; 
fe vaB ~ III till III Mil r^** ftiimaai gtsad jBTor, and meoiber of the GeneTsI 

GOBt. 

SagL JiAm. ITTB— la < migijlid from GambrM^ednre, "Rngfand, with his 
jUfVTil^ m. 1639, at &e age of tea jeaia. He vas orraninnaTly a depotj to the 
GoKxal CoBt, vaa a eokwal graid jnor from 16@ «^3 &e wganhatinn of 
&e eo^riSes m 1666, and was appnatel to ran flie faoaodary Ene between Har^ 
fcrijJw ^A«^ifiJ.i a»au t» ..»liaaiPtowB«i^Wrfha»^t4.i. Hediedml703. 

Mieimd Tremt mm ofiea a dep^ and magirtnite, and was one of die paten- 
tees of Ae eoio^. He vas&e£rffa9af GoreinorTreaL 

Ss^ JtHm Kma was a j«or of Ae lattiealar Court at Hart£)td as earij as 
1640, aad was sidBefaa^ a —fAp*- of t]ie Genezal Court at twenty semf- 

JMb JZiZey was on fte jsry of tbe parfifalar eoort in ^lar 1&49 ; was aa 
&e fiet of freeflKa ia WeAer^eid in 1669, aad in 1675 was ^postman'' 
between Bart&rd and S^isook. 

JoM* Treat (a bob of Bidiard^ was a depntv from WethezEfidd in Mir, 
1673, sad at asretai sdhaaqaeot ncaaoiM L 

Hemn/ Crmae warn a depa^ from "ESGagwar&i in 3iaT 1673, and at oAer 

* .J. IL TmmbjLl's Cofcaual Beeords, L 323. 



[1559.] -^^ .. ^7HZr-i---^LD CO^TCEOTZSST. 4^ 

to repair unto Mr. Rassell in behalf of Lieutenai!: Hol[L5:er, 
and in the name of the court, desire and if need b-e rc-;-uire 
of him and the church of Wethersfield the partictuar charges 
or oflences for which Mr. Holiister was censured, and hav- 
ing received the said charges from Mr. Russeh and the 
church, forthwith to deliver them to Mr. Holiister for iiis 
help and conviction,"'* and inasmuch as "Mr. Treat, Mr. 
Holiister, and John Deming, were desirous and wiliing to 
attend some regular way for the composing their ditterences," 
the Court desired the church at Wethersfield to devise 
some wav of reconcihation between the parties, if that were 
possible, t 

When the court met in October 1659, it was found that 
the same " tedious dinerenc^s and troubles still existed 
between Mr. Russell and the lieutenant," and that some mace 
decisive measures must be t^^en. 

The court therefcwne desired the churches of Hartford and 
Windsor " to send two or three messengers apiece to meet in 
Wethersfield, <« the 1st Tuesday in 2Vovember 1659, to give 
such advice in the premises as God shall direct them mito br 
the light of scripture and reason. '' Even thi^ expedient 
failed.;^ 

The quarrel ended with the removal of Mr. Russell to 
Hadley, with his adherents, where he spent the remainder of 
his days.§ At this remote day it is impossible to say who 
was most in fault in this unhappy controversy. The more 
charitable conclusion is the one thai has been arrived at by 
aU the authors who have written upon it, that the conduct of 
neither party could be justified, and that each was too rash 
and unforgiving in his behavior. 1^ This was certainly the 
opinion of the General Court at the time. 

» J. H. Tnnnban"s Cotonial Kevx^rvis. L ooO. 3-?!. - 7: : 

J J. EL Tncnball's Coioaial Reccris, L 34.. 

§ Mr. RiEs^ WK a gradoare oc Harrard Co". _ _ 

lus eotempcwarses foe his leamin^ and piety. I: ; 
SBjd GoSe, two of tke Jodges ot Cbarfes I., wiert ...^ _ 
there, h is soT^MGed, xt lesst ace of them died. Mr. ?. ?- .2 

•"Vl^e Tr^b::^. Cla:!ar. Cot:c=. M;±er. azi :chf:^. 



466 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

In 1659, a violent feeling began to manifest itself in the 
church at Middletown against their pastor, the Rev. Mr. 
Stow, which resulted in his dismissal. 

In October 1666, the General Court, in order "to consider 
some way or means to bring these ecclesiastical matters, that 
are in difference in the several plantations, to an issue," 
ordered that a synod should be called, to which all the pastors 
in the colony, and certain clergymen in Massachusetts, 
should be invited.* The ministers, however, objected to 
meet as a synod, and in consequence, the legislature at a 
subsequent session judged it expedient to alter the name of 
the council, and to call it an assembly of the ministers of 
Connecticut. The assembly met early in the summer of 
1667, and, after conversing upon the subjects and appoint- 
ing committees, adjourned to meet again in the fall and make 
their report. 

In the meantime, it was ascertained that a decision was 
not likely to be obtained in unison with the wishes of a 
majority of the legislature, and an effort was commenced to 
prevent the re-assembling of the ecclesiastical council. This 
was accomplished by procuring an order from the commis- 
sioners of the united colonies, that " all questions of public 
concernment about matters of faith and order, should be 
referred to a synod or council of messengers of churches, 
indifferently called out of the united colonies, by an order of 
agreement of all the General Courts ; and that the place of 
meeting should be at or near Boston. "f 

The general convention was never called, and no further 
attempt was made to bring the questions in dispute into a 
public discussion. The great point at issue between the two 
parties appears to have been, the conditions of church mem- 
bership. 

The people of Windsor had for a long time been in an 
unquiet state respecting the settlement of a colleague to 
assist Mr. Wareham in the work of the ministry, he having 
become advanced in years. Mr. Chauncey, who was invited 

* J. H. Trumbull, ii. 53, 54. t Trumbull, i. 357, 358. 



DIFFICULTIES IN WINDSOR. 467 

to preach there, met with bitter opposition. The General 
Court finally interfered, with the hopes of bringing matters 
to a crisis. It enacted that " all the freemen and household- 
ers in Windsor and Massacoe," should assemble at the meet- 
ing house at a given day and hour, and express their minds 
by ballot for or against Mr. Chauncey. The result was, 
eighty-six for, and fifty-five against, Mr. Chauncey. The 
legislature then decided that the majority might settle their 
favorite, and that the minority had liberty to call and settle 
an orthodox minister among themselves, if they thought 
expedient.* 

The minor party thereupon immediately called Mr. Wood- 
bridge to preach among them. Both of these ministers con- 
tinued to preach in Windsor, one to the one party and the 
other to the other, from 1667 to 1680. Several councils were 
called to consider the matter. One in 1677, and another in 
1680, advised that Messrs. Chauncey and Woodbridge should 
both leave the town, and that the two parties should unite in 
calling one minister — but without effect. 

In October of the last mentioned year, the legislature con- 
firmed the advice of the council, and called upon all the good 
people of Windsor to assist therein, " and not in the least to 
oppose or hinder the same, as they will answer the contrary 
to their peril.'''\ 

The Rev. Samuel Mather was soon after called to preach 
in Windsor, and in 1682, he was ordained to the pastoral 
office over the whole town. He gave good satisfaction to all, 
and the affairs of the society flourished under his ministry 
until his death in 1726. 

The fruitful topics of controversy, which had disturbed 
the harmony of so many churches in the colony, again began 
to agitate the church in Hartford. Stone and Goodwin 
were no more ; but a like difference of opinion seems to 
have characterized their successors. Mr. Whiting and a 
part of the church zealously adhered to the opinions and prac- 
tices of. the congregational churches since the emigration to 
^^* Trumbull, i. 460. t Col. Records, MS. 



468 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

New England. On the other hand, Mr. Haynes and a 
majority of the congregation claimed to have adopted more 
liberal views. The difference became so great, that a divis- 
ion of the church was effected in 1669.* Contentions 
also occun'ed in the church in Stratford about the same 
time, which resulted in a division, and in the removal of 
one of the contending parties to Pomperaug (now Wood- 
bury.)! 

Previous to 1708, the Cambridge Platform had been the gen- 
eral plan of church fellowship and discipline in New Eng- 
land. Divers opinions had long existed as to the policy and 
efficacy of some of its provisions and omissions. In obedi- 
ence to repeated requests and memorials, the legislature, at 
their May session, 1708, passed an act requiring the minis- 
ters and churches of Connecticut to meet and form an 
ecclesiastical constitution. J They accordingly assembled at 
Saybrook, on the 9th day of September 1708, and after due 
deliberation adopted the celebrated " Saybrook Platform," 
together with a confession of faith. A uniform standard of 
faith and action being thus agreed upon, a period of harmony 
and good feeling followed, such as had not been before ex- 
perienced for many years. 

The first serious ecclesiastical disturbance after the union 
thus effected, occurred in Guilford in 1728. Mr. Thomas 
Ruggles, the minister of that place, had died, and the church 
and society proceeded to call his son of the same name to 
preach for them, and finally procured his ordination and set- 
tlement, much to the dissatisfaction of a respectable minority 
who had opposed him from the beginning. The minority, 
consisting of about fifty members of the church and many 
others belonging to the society, separated ; they declared their 
dissent to the Saybrook Platform, invited a young clergy- 
man, Mr. Edmund Ward, to preach for them, and petitioned 
the legislature to make them a distinct ecclesiastical society. 
The legislature denied their request ; whereupon they 
appealed to the court at New Haven to be qualified, according 

* Trumbull, i, 461. + Col. Records, i. 177. i Col. Records, MS. 




/I vnaffitin Criv)Jnrhj 



[1735.] THE GREAT REVIVAL. 469 

to the act of William and Mary, for the ease of sober con- 
sciences, to worship by themselves. The court deferred the 
matter until their next meeting, in April — on which day 
several of the dissenters, together with Mr. Ward, appeared 
in court and qualified themselves according to the act of 
parliament and the laws of the colony. 

They now renewed their request to the legislature to be 
freed from paying taxes to the first society, and to be made 
a distinct ecclesiastical body. On a full representation of 
the facts in the case, their first request was granted. Efforts 
were now renewed to effect a reconciliation between the 
parties, but they proved unavailing. The breach grew wider 
and wider, until, on the 30th of June 1731, the church under 
the care of Mr. Ruggles, suspended from communion forty- 
six of the dissenting members. 

The contention continued with unabated violence until 
May 1733, when the friends of Mr. Ward were finally made 
a distinct ecclesiastical society by the legislature.* 

In 1735, there began a most remarkable religious awaken- 
ing under the preaching of the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, 
at Northampton, which has since been designated as the 
" great revival. "f It spread into many towns in Connecticut, 
and the feeling and interest manifested on the great themes 
of religion were intense and absorbing. This appears to 
to have been followed by a period of great religious declen- 
sion and formality until 1740; when a still more general and 
extraordinary revival commenced, which spread throughout 
New England and some of the more southern and western 
colonies. Childhood, manhood, old age — the learned and the 
ignorant — the moralist and the skeptic — men of wealth and 
the highest official position, as well as paupers and outcasts — 
were numbered among its converts. We are told that even 

* Trumbull, ii. 115, 134. 

+ At the request of Dr. Watts and other English divines, Mr. Edwards %vrote 
a narrative of the " great revival," which was published in London, and has since 
been frequently republished. 



470 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

the Indians, on whom no impression could previously be 
made, became humble inquirers after the truth.* 

Among the most zealous and efficient laborers in the work, 
were Whitfield, Edwards, and Tennant, from abroad ; and 
Wheelock, Bellamy, Pomeroy, Mills, Graham, Meacham, 
Whitman, and Farrand, among the pastors of Connecticut. 
Many of the clergy of the colony, however, strenuously 
opposed the measures employed and the effects produced ; 
and many of the magistrates and other leading men joined 
with them in denouncing the " itinerating clergy" and their 
converts as enthusiasts, new lights, and ranters. Laws were 
passed, with severe penalties, against any clergyman or 
exhorter who should attempt to preach in any parish or town 
without the express desire of the pastor or people thereof.f 

It is not to be denied that many gross errors and irregu- 
larities followed in the train of this remarkable moral revolu- 
tion. Many of the most enthusiastic of its subjects forsook 
their pastors and their usual places of worship, and followed 
the "itinerants" from parish to parish and from town to town. 
Some of the preachers and exhorters encouraged the most 
boisterous manifestations of feeling during the public worship, 
on the part of the audience, and sought to arouse them by 
raising their own voices to the highest key, accompanied by 
violent gestures and the most unnatural agitations of the 
body. Some claimed to know, by a divine instinct, who 
were christians and who were sinners ; and in particular 
cases, took it upon themselves to declare openly that their pastors 
and other christian friends were hypocrites or self-deceivers. 
They grew pharisaical, uncharitable, censorious, bitter, self- 
sufficient, and finally claimed that they had been regenerated 

» Trumbull, ii. 144. 

t Any person not an ordained or settled minister wlio should attempt publicly 
to teach or exhort without the expfess desire and invitation of the pastor or a 
major part of the church and congregation, should be bound in the sum of ono 
hundred pounds lawful money not to ofieiid again. 

Any foreigner or stranger not an inhabitant of the colony, whether ordained or 
not, who should so offend, was ordered " to be sent as a vagrant person, from 
constable to constable, out of the bounds of the colony." 



OPPOSITION TO THE "NEW LIGHTS." 471 

and could not sin. Some of them took delight in denouncing 
and vihfying the established religion and its ministers, as 
well ^s the civil government and all in authority under 
it.* 

The assembly not only passed laws against these alleged 
irregularities, but the several ecclesiastical bodies interposed 
their authority to check the innovations of the "new lights." 
After numerous attempts to discipline the refractory preachers, 
the consociations and association, proceeded to suspend or 
expel all the " new light" pastors in the colony. The pretexts 
for this summary action were various. In some instances 
the offenders had repudiated the Saybrook platform, in others, 
they vvere charged with violating the statute which prohibited 
them from preaching in other parishes without the requisite 
consent; while in other cases they were suspected of danger- 
ous heresies. ■)• The trial of the Rev. Philemon Robbins of 
Branford, who was charged with all these offenses, com- 
menced in 1742 was continued till 1747, and resulted in his 
deposition from the ministry. He, however, continued to 
preach to his people as before, to their general satisfaction ; 
they increased his salary, and encouraged him by various 
acts of public and private liberality. 

The difficulty arising out of the settlement of Mr. Whit- 
tlesy at Milford, partook largely of a personal character, and 
deserves little notice from the historian. It resulted in a 
division of the church in that town, and in the settlement of 
Mr. Prudden by the minority. 

Mr. Noyes, pastor of the first church in New Haven, had 

* Rev. John Owen of Groton, and Rev. Benjamin Pomeroy of Hebron, were 
brought before the legislature in May 1744, for scandalizing the laws and officers 
of the government, &c. The former made some concessions, and was dismissed 
on his paying the costs of prosecution ; the latter w'as bound to keep the peace, in 
a bond of fifty pounds, and was made to pay the cost of prosecution, amounting 
to £32: 10: 8. 

t In 1744, the Rev. Messrs. Leavenworth of Waterbury, Humphreys of Derby, 
and Todd of Northbury, were suspended by the consociation for assisting in the 
ordination of the Rev. Jonathan Lee, at Salisbury, because he and his church had 
adopted the Cambridge platform. 



472 HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT. 

been one of the violent opposers of the religious excitement 
of the times. He excluded the "revival preachers" from his 
pulpit, and openly approved of the laws that had been passed 
to suppress or regulate the extravagances and alleged 
fanaticism that had grown out of that excitement. As a 
consequence, many of his parishioners became disaffected 
towards him ; and, as they failed to secure that redress from 
the consociation, to which they felt themselves entitled, they 
withdrew, organized themselves under the "toleration act," 
and were formally recognized as a distinct and independent 
church and society by a council called for that purpose.* 
For several years the new church was without a pastor, but 
in the meantime enjoyed the ministrations of many able 
preachers. In 1751, an ecclesiastical council met at New 
Haven and installed to the pastoral office the Rev. Mr. Bird.f 
This is still known as the second or north church in New 
Haven. 

The "Wallingford controversy" agitated the churches of 
Connecticut from 1758 to 1763, and was frequently the sub- 
ject of comment long thereal'ter. It commenced in a spirit 
of hostility to the Rev. James Dana, who was called to 
preach in that town, and was finally settled there in opposi- 
tion to a large proportion of the members of the society. It 
was contended by his opponents that he was not orthodox in 
sentiment; that he had evaded the enquiries of the com- 
mittee as to his views on important doctrinal points, and 
finally replied impertinently ; and, after his alleged ordina- 
tion, it was claimed that the ordination was not valid inas- 
much as it was not done in accordance with the provisions 
of the Saybrook platform. The members of the ordaining 
council were excluded from the association and were never 
restored. The individuals who withdrew from the church in 



* The council convened at New Haven in Sept. 1751, 'and consisted of the 
Rev. Messrs. Philemon Robbins, Joseph Bellamy, Eleazer Wheelock, Samuel 
Hopkins and Benjamin Pomeroy, together with lay delegates from their respective 
churches. 

+ Trumbull. 



[1644.] RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 473 

Wallingford formed a new society, which was incorporated 
at the May session of the legislature, 1763. The Rev. 
Simon Waterman had become their pastor some time before 
that date.* 

The religion of the colony was established by law at an 
early date. In October 1644, the General Court adopted the 
proposition of the united colonies relative to the support of 
ministers. This proposition, which was enacted as the law 
of the colony, provided that each individual should " volun- 
tarily set down what he is willing to allow to that end and 
use ;" and if any man refuse or neglect to pay his proportion, 
he should be rated by authority, and the amount collected by 
due course of law as in the case of other just debts. This 
principle was borrowed in part from the institutions of Eng- 
land, though it was greatly modified and softened in its prac- 
tical application. Here, it will be seen, as in the father- 
land, all adults whatever may have been their own religious 
views, were obliged to contribute to the support of the 
established church. Instead, however, of a system of tithes, 
taxation was resorted to. In addition to this, the whole 
population was obliged to attend the regular meetings on Sun- 
days, fasts, and thanksgiving days. 

At the same time, with a liberality not at all in accordance 
with the example set them in England, provision was made 
for those who dissented from the mode of worship thus estab- 
lished, and "all sober, orthodox persons" who did not fall in 
with the usages of Congregationalism, were allowed, after 
having made their wishes known in a public manner to the 
General Court, peaceably to worship in their own way.f 

The practical operation of this system was much more 
lenient than one would infer even from the statutes them- 

* TrumbulL 

t In May 1669, after expressing tlicir full approval of Congregationalism, the 
General Court say — " Yet forasmuch as sundry persons of worth for jn'udence 
and piety amongst us are otherwise persuaded, This court doth declare that all 
such persons being also approved according to law as orthodox and sound in the 
fundamentals of the christian religion, may have allovi-ance of their persuasion 
and profession in church ways or assemblies without disturbance." 



474 



HISTOEY OF CONNECTICUT. 



selves. A sedate, calm people growing up under institutions 
that every individual in the republic had helped to frame, 
and for which he consequently felt a personal responsibility, 
the general desire was that there should be a sober and 
equable exercise of authority throughout the colony. 

The difficulties growing out of a new church government, 
several of which have been delineated in this chapter, are 
just what we should have anticipated as likely to follow in 
the train of those struggles in the early part of the sixteenth 
century, when Martin Luther and his contemporaries, 
"wielding the hammer of the Word, wrought upon the hard 
metal of human unbelief, till the world rang,"* and extended 
down to the time when the blood, that was at once the most 
vital and the most conservative that then flowed in Eng- 
lish veins, rebelled against the arbitrary exactions of the old 
world and warmed with the promises of the new. 

Thus I have attempted, in a very humble way, to describe 
the beginnings of our venerable republic. The reader has 
seen the seeds sown by the whirlwind taking root in the 
desert and growing up and blossoming with hope while 
"winter lingered in the lap of May." Hoping that some- 
thing of the fragrance of their young growth has been dis- 
tilled upon the last page of this volume, I close it, only to open 
another that shall describe the glorious fruit that those seeds 
have borne. 

* Hoppin's " Notes of a Theological Student. 




LA.DY FENWICK's TOMB. 



APPENDIX. 

A. 

PATENT OF CONNECTICUT-1631. 

To all people vnto wliome this present wrlteing shall come, Robert, earle of 
Warwick, sendeth greeting, in our Lord God everlasting : ICnow yee, that the 
sayd Robert, earl of Warwick, for divers Good causes & considerations him 
therevnto moueing, hath giuen. Granted, Bargained, sold, enfeoffed. Aliened & 
confirmed, & bj' these presents doth giue, grant, Bargain, sell, enfeoffe. Alien & 
confirme vnto the Right Honourable William, Viscount Say & Scale, The Right 
Honourable Rob't, Lord Brooke, The right honourable Lord Rich, & the Honour- 
able Charles fines, Esq'r, Sr. Nathaniel Rich, Knight, Sr. Richard Saltonstall, 
Knight, Richard Knightly, Esq'r, John Pirn, Esq'r, John Hamden, Esq'r, John 
Humphrey, Esq'r & Herbert Pelham, Esq'r, theire heires & assignes & their 
associates foreuer, all that part of New England in Americah, which lyes & extends 
it selfe from a Riuer there called Narrogancett Riuer, the space of forty leagues 
vpon a straight lyne neere the sea shore towards the Sowth west, west and by sowth 
or west, as the coast lyeth, towards Virginia, accounting Three English Miles to 
the league ; & allso all & singuler the lands & hereditaments what soeuer, lye- 
ing & being with in the lands afoarsayd, North & South in Lattitude & bredth, 
& in Length & Longitude of & with in all the bredth afoarsayd, through out 
the Maine lands there, from the western e oscian to the sowth sea ; & all lands 
& grounds, place & places, soyle, wood & woods. Grounds, hauens, portes, 
creeks & Rivers, waters, fishings & hereditaments what soever, lying with in the 
sayd space & every part & parcell thereof; & allso all Islands lying in Americah 
afoarsayd, iu the sayd seas or either of them, on the western or eastern coasts or 
parts of the sayd Tracts of lands by these pr'sents mentioned to be giuen, granted, 
Bargained, sold, enfeoffed, aliened & confirmed ; & allso all Mines, Mineralls, — 
(as well Royall mines of Gold & Siluer as other mines & mineralls) what euer in 
the sayd lands & premises, or any part thereof; & allso the several Riuers with 
in the sayd limits, by what Name or Names soever called or known ; & all Juris- 
dictions, rights & Royalties, liberties, freedomes, Immunities, powers, priuiledges, 
franchizes, preheminencies & comodities what soever, which the said Rob't 
earle of Worwick, now hath or had, or might vse, exercise or injoy, in or within 
[the said lands and premises or within*] any part or parcell thereof, excepting & 
reseruing to his Ma'tia, his heirs & successors, the fift part of all Gold & Silver 
care that shall be found with in the sayd premises or any part or parcell thereof: 
to haue & to hold the sayd part of New England in Americah which lyes & 

* The portion in brackets is found only in an early copy made by Mr. John Talcott, '' of that 
Coppy which was in Mr. Hopkins his Custody." [Towns and Lands, Vol. 1. No. .").] 



476 APPENDIX. 

extends & is abutted as afoarsayd, and the sayd severall Riuers, & euery part <fc 
parcell thereof, & all the sayd Islands, Riuers, portes, Hauens, waters, fishings, 
Mines, Mineralls, lurisdictions, powers, franchizes, Royalties, liberties, priuiledges, 
commodities, hereditaments & premises whatsoeuer, with the appurtenances, vnto 
the sayd William, Viscount Say & Se.ale, Robert, Lord Brooke, Robert, Lord 
Rich, Charles fines, Sr. Nathaniel Rich, Sr. Richard Saltonstall, Richard Knightly, 
John Pirn, John Ilamden, John Ilumphery & Herbert Pellam, theire heirs & 
assignes & their associates, to the onely proper & absolute vse & behoofe of 
them the sayd William, Viscount Say & Scale, Robert, Lord Brook, Robert, Lord 
Rich, Charles fines, Sr. Nathaniel Rich, Sr. Richard Saltonstall, Richard Knightly, 
John Pim, John Hamden, John Humphrey and Herbert Pelham, their heirs and 
assignes and their associates for evermore. In Witness whereof, the sayd 
Robert Earle of Warwick hath herevnto set his hand & scale, the Nineteenth 
day of March, in the Seventh yeare of the Reigne of our Soueraigne Lord Charles, 
by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, france and Jreland, Defender 
of the fayth, &e. Anno Dom. 1631. 

ROBERT WARWICK. [L. S.] 

Signed, Sealed & delluered in the presence of 
Walter Williams, 
Thomas Ilowson, 
Hartford, August 6, 1679. 

Vera Copia, JOHN ALLEN, Secr'y* 



B. 

CHARTER OF 1G62. 

Charles tlae Second, By tiae Grace of God, King of Eng- 
land, Scotland, France and Ireland, defender of the Faith, &c. ; To all to whome 
theis presents shall come, Greetinge : Whereas, by the severall Navigatons, 
discoveryes and successfull Plantatons of diverse of our loveing Subjects of this our 
Realme of England, Severall Lands, Islands, Places, Colonies and Plantatons have 
byn obtained and setled in that parte of the Continent of America called New 
England, and thereby the Trade and Comeree there hath byn of late yeares 
much increased, And "»vhereas, wee have byn informed by the humble 
Petiton of our Trusty and welbeloved John Winthrop, John INIason, Samuell 
Willis, Henry Gierke, Mathew Allen, John Tappen, Nathan Gold, Richard 
Treate, Richard Lord, Henry Woolicott, John Talcott, Daniell Gierke, John 
Ogden, Tliomas Wells, Obedias Brewen, John Gierke, Anthony Haukins, John 
Deming and Mathew Camfeild, being Persons Principally interessed in our 
Colony or Plantaton of Conecticutt in New England, that the same Colony or the 
greatest parte thereof was purchased and obteyned for greate and valuable Con- 

* Towns and Lands, Vol. 1. No. 2. The original Patent is supposed to be lost. 



APPENDIX. 477 

sideratons, AntI some other part thereof gained by Conquest and with much 
difficulty, and att the onely endeavours, expence and Charge of them and their 
Associats, and those vnder whome they Clayme, Subdued and improved, and 
thereby become a considerable enlargement and additon of our Dominions and 
interest there, — IVOAV MllOW yea, that in Consideraton thereof, and in 
regard the said Colony is remote from other the English Plantatons in the Places 
aforesaid. And to the end the Affaii-es and Business which shall from tyme to 
tyme happen or arise concerning the same may bee duely Ordered and mannaged, 
Wee liave thought fitt, and att the humble Petiton of the Persons aforesaid, 
and are graciously pleased to Create and Make them a Body Pollitique and Corpo- 
rate, with the powers and Priviledges herein after mentoned ; And accordingly Our 
will and pleasure is, and of our especiall grace, certeine knowledge and meere 
motou, AVee have Ordeyned, Constituted and Declared, And by theis presents 
for vs, our heires and Successors, !>oe Ordeine, Constitute and Declare That 
they, the said John Winthrop, John Mason, Samuell Willis, Henry Clerke, 
Mathew Allen, John Tappen, Nathan Gold, Richard Treate, Richard Lord, 
Henry Woolcot, John Talcot, Daniell Clerke, Jolin Ogden, Thomas Wells, 
Obadiah Brewen, John Clerke, Anthony Hawkins, John Deming and Mathew 
Camfeild, and all such others as now are hereafter shall bee Admitted and made 
free of the Company and Society of our Collony of Conecticut in America, shall 
from tyme to tyme and for ever hereafter, bee one Body Corporate and Pollitique 
in fact and name, by the Name of Governour and Company of the English 
Collony of Conecticut in New England in America ; And that by the same name 
they and their Successors shall and may have perpetuall Succession, and shall and 
may bee Persons able and capable in the law to Plead and bee Impleaded, to 
Answere and bee Answered vnto, to Defend and bee Defended in all and singuler 
Suits, Causes, quarrelles. Matters, Actons and things of what kind or nature 
soever, And alsoe to have, take, possesse, acquire and purchase lands. Tene- 
ments or herditaments, or any goods or Chattells, and the same to Lease, Graunt, 
Demise, Alien, bargaine, Sell and dispose of, as other our leige People of this our 
Realme of England, or any other Corporaton or Body Pollitique within 
the same may lawfully doe. And ffMrllaer, that the said Gov- 
ernour and Company, and their Successors shall and may for ever here- 
after have' a Common Scale to serve and vse for all Causes, matters, 
things and affaires whatsoever of them and their Successors, and the same 
Scale to alter, change, breake and make new from tyme to tyme att their 
wills and pleasures, as they shall thinke fitt. j:\5atl further, wee will and 
Ordeine, and by theis presents for vs, our heires and Successors I>oe Declare 
and appoint, that for the better ordering and manageing of the affaires and busi- 
nesse of the said Company and their Suecessoi's, there shall bee one Governour, 
one Deputy Governom' and Twelve Assistants, to bee from tyme to tyme Consti- 
tuted, Elected and Chosen out of the Freemen of the said Company for the tyme 
being, in such manner and forme as hereafter in these presents is expressed ; 
which said Officers shall apply themselves to take care for the best disposeing and 
Ordering of the Generall busines and affaires of and concering the lands and 
hereditaments herein after mentoned to bee graunted. and the Plantaton thereof 



478 APPENDIX. 

and the Government of the People thereof. And for the better exeeuton of our 
Royall Pleasure herein, 'wee doe for vs, our heires and Successors, Assigne, 
name, Constitute and appoint the aforesaid John Winthrop to bee "" first and 
present Governour of the said Company; And the said John Mason to bee ""• 
Deputy Governour ; And the said SamucU Willis, Mathevv Allen, Nathan Gold, 
Henry Gierke, Richard Treat, John Ogden, Thomas Tappen, John Talcott, 
Thomas Wells, Henry Woolcot, Richard Lord and Daniell Gierke to bee the 
Twelve present Assistants of the said Company ; to contynue in the said sever- 
all offices respectively, vntiU the second Thursday which sliall bee in the Moneth 
of October now next comcing. And further, wee will, and by theis presents for 
vs, our heires and Successors, Doe Ordaine and Graunt that the Governour of 
the said Company for the tyme being, or, in his absence by occasion of sickness, 
or otherwise by his leave or permission, the Deputy Governour for the tyme 
being, shall and may from tyme to tyme vpon all occasions give Order for the 
assembling of the said Company and calling them together to Consult and advise 
of the businesse and Affaires of the said Company, And that for ever hereafter, 
Twice in every yeare. That is to say on every second Thursday in October and ou 
every second Thursday in May, or oftner, in Case it sliall bee requisite. The Assist- 
ants and freemen of the said Company, or such of them (not exceeding twoo 
Persons from each place, Towne or Citty) whoe shall be from tyme to tyme 
therevnto Elected or Deputed by the maior parte of the freemen of the respect- 
ive Townes, Cittyes and Places for which they shall bee soe elected or Deputed, 
shall have a generall meeting or Assembly, then and their to Consult and advise 
in and about the Affaires and businesse of the said Company ; And that the Gov- 
ernour, or in his absence the Deputy Governour of the said Company for the 
tyme being, and such of the Assistants and freemen of the said Company as shall 
bee soe Elected or Deputed and bee present att such meeting or Assembly, or 
the greatest Number of them, whereof the Governour or Deputy Governour and 
Six of the Assistants at least (to bee Seaven) shall be called the Generall Assem- 
bly, and shall have full power and authority to alter and change their dayes and 
tymes of meeting or Generall Assemblies for Electing the Governour, Deputy 
Governour and Assistants or other Officers, or any other Courts, Assemblies or 
meetings, and to Choose, Nominate and appoint such and soe many other Per- 
sons as they shall thinke fitt and shall bee willing to accept the same, to bee free of 
the said Company and Body Politique, and them into the same, to Admitt and to 
Elect, and Constitute such Officers as they shall thinke fitt and requisite for the Or- 
dering, manageing and disposcing of the A ffairesofthe said Governour and Company 
and their Successors. And "*vee doe hereby for vs, our heirs and Successors, 
Establish and Ordeine, that once in the yeare for ever hereafter, namely, the said 
Second Thursday in May, the Governour, Deputy Governour, and Assistants of tho 
said Company and other Officers of the said Company, or such of them as the said 
Generall Assembly shall thinke fitt, shall bee in the said Generall Court and Assem- 
bly to bee held from that day or tyme newly Chosen for tho yeare ensueing, by 
such greater part of the said Company for the tyme being then and there pre- 
Bcnt. And if the Governour, Deputy Governour and Assistants by these pre- 
sents appointed, or such as hereafter bee newly Chosen into their Roomes, or any 



APPENDIX. 479 

of them, or any other the Officers to bee appointed for the said Company shall 
dye or bee removed from his or their scverail Offices or Places before the said 
Generall day of Ekcton, whome wee doe hereby Declare for any misdemeanour 
or default to bee removeable by the Governour, Assistants and Company, or such 
greater part of them in any of tlie said publique Courts to bee Assembled as is 
aforesaid, That then and in every such Case itt shall and may bee lawfull to and 
for the Governour, Deputy Governour and Assistants and Company aforesaid, 
or such greater parte of them soe to bee Assembled as is aforesaid in any of their 
Assemblies to proeeede to a New Eleeton of one or more of their Company in the 
Roome or place, Roomes or Places of such Governour, Deputy Governour, As- 
sistant or other Officer or Officers soe dyeing or removed, according to their dis- 
cretions ; and imediately vpon and after such Eleeton or Electons made of such 
Governour, Deputy Governour, Assistant or Assistants, or any other Officer of 
the said Company in manner and forme aforesaid. The Authority, Office and 
Power before given to the former Governour, Deputy Governour or other 
Officer and Officers so removed, in whose stead and Place new shall be chosen, 
shall as to him and them and every of them respectively cease and determine. 
Provided, alsoe, and our will and pleasure is. That as well such as are by 
theis presents appointed to bee the present Governour, Deputy Governour and 
Assistants of the said Company as those that ^'"'" succeed them, and ah other Offi- 
cers to be appointed and Chosen as aforesaid, shall, before they vndertake the Execu- 
ton of their said Offices and Places respectively, take their severall and respective 
Corporall Oathes for the due and faithfull performance of their dutyes in their several 
Offices and Places, before such Person or Persons as are by these Presents hereafter 
appoynted to take and receive the same ; That is to say, the said John Winthrop, 
whoe is herein before nominated and appointed the present Governour of the 
said Company, shall take the said Oath before one or more of the Masters of 
our Court of Chancery for the tyme being, vnto which Waster of Chancery wee 
doe, by theis presents, give full power and authority to Administer the said 
Oath to the said John Winthrop accordingly. And the said John Mason, whoe 
is herein before nominated and appointed the present Deputy Governour of the 
Company, shall take the said Oath before the said John Winthrop, or any twoe 
of the Assistants of the said Company, vnto whome Avee d.oe by these pre- 
sents, give full power and authority to Administer the said Oath to the said John 
Mason accordingly. And the said Samuell Willis, Henry Gierke, Mathew 
Allen, John Tappen, Nathan Gold, Richard Treate, Richard Lord, Henry Wool- 
cott, John Taleott, Daniell Gierke, John Ogden and Thomas Welles, whoe are 
herein before Nominated and ajipointcd the present Assistants of the said Com- 
pauy, shall take the Oath bcfor-' ""' said John Winthrop and John Mason, or one 
of them, to whome ^vec Aoe hereby give full power and authority to Admin- 
ister the same accordingly. And our further will and pleasure is, that all and 
every Governour or Deputy Governour to bee Elected and Chosen by vertuo of 
theis presents, shall take the said Oath before two or more of the Assistants of 
the said Company for the tyme being, vnto whome wee doe, by theis present', 
give full power and authority to g.ve and Administer the said Oath accordingly. 
And the said Assistants and every of tli-nn, and all and every otiicr Officer or 



480 APPENDIX. 

* 

OfRcers to bee hereafter Chosen from tyme to tyme, to take the said Oath before 
the Governour or Deputy Governour for the tyme being, vnto which said Gov- 
ernour or Deputy Governour wee doe, by theis presents, give full power and au- 
thority to Administer the same accordingly. And f urtlicr, of our own 
ample grace, eerteine knowledge and meere moton wee Isave given and 
Graunted, and by theis presents, for vs, our heires and Successors, l>oe give and 
Graunt vnto the said Governour and Company of the English Colony of Coneeti- 
cut in New England in America, and to every Inhabitant there, and to every 
Person and Persons Tradeing thither, And to every such Person and Persons as 
are or shall bee free of the said Collony, full power and authority from tyme to 
tyme and att all tymes hereafter, to take. Ship, Transport and Carry av.ay, for and 
towards the Plantaton and defence of the said Collony such of our loveing Sub- 
iects and Strangers as shall or will willingly accompany them in and to 
their said Collony and Plantaton ; (Except such Person and Persons as are 
or shall bee therein restrayned by vs, our heires and Successors ;) And 
alsoe to Ship and Transport all and all manner of goods, Chattells, Mer- 
chandizes and other things whatsoever that are or shall bee vsefull or 
necessary for the Inhabitants of the said Collony and may lawfully bee 
Transported thither ; Neverthelesse, not to bee discharged of payment to vs, our 
heires and Successors, of the Dutycs, Customes and Subsidies which are or ought 
to bee paid or payable for the same. And flirlSier, Our will and pleasure 
is, and ^vee doe for vs, our heires and Successors, Ordeyne, Declare and 
Graunt vnto the said Governor and Company and their Successors, That all and 
every the Subiects of vs, our heires or Successors which shall goe to Inhabite 
within the said Colony, and every of their Children which shall happen to bee 
borne there or on the Sea in goeing thither or returneing from thence, shall have 
and enioye all liberties and Immunities of free and naturall Subiects within any 
the Dominions of vs, our heires or Successors, to all intents, Constructons and 
purposes watsoever, as if they and every of them were borne within the Realme 
of England. Alld wee doe authorise and impower the Governour, or in 
his abscence the Deputy Governor for the tyme being, to appointe two or more of 
the said Assistants att any of their Courts or Assemblyes to bee held as aforesaid, 
to have power and authority to Administer the Oath of Supremacy and obedience 
to all and every Person and Persons which shall att any tyme or tymes hereafter 
goe or passe into the said Colony of Coneeticutt, vnto which said Assistants soe 
to bee appointed as aforesaid, wee d®e, by these presents, give full power and 
authority to Administer the said Oath accordingly. And wee doe f Ur- 
tlier, of our especiall grace, certaine knowledge and meere moton, give and 
Graunt vnto the said Governor and Company of the English Colony of Coneeti- 
cutt in New England in America, and their Successors, that itt shall and may bee 
lawfull to and for the Governor or Deputy Governor and such of the Assistants 
of the said Company for the tyme being as shall bee Assembled in any of the 
Generall Courts aforesaid, or in any Courts to bee especially Sumoned or Assem- 
bled for that purpose, or the greater parte of them, whereof the Governor or 
Deputy Governor and Six of the Assistants, (to bee all wayes Seaven,) to Erect and 
make such Judicatories for the hearoing and Determining of all Actons, Causes, 



APPEXDIX. 481 

matters and thinges happelng within the said Colony or Plantaton and which shall 
bee in dispute and depending there, as they shall tliinke fitt and convenient ; Axii 
alsoe from tyme to tyme to Rlake, Ordaine and Establish All manner of wholsome 
and reasonable Lawes, Statutes, Ordinances, Direetons and Instructons, not con- 
trary to the lawes of this Realme of England, aswell for setling the formes and 
Ceremonies of Governement and Magestracy fitt and necessary for the said Plan- 
taton and the Inhabitants there as for nameing and Stileing all sorts of Officers, 
both superior and inferior, which they shall find needfull for the Governement 
and Plantaton of the said Colony, and distinguishing and setting forth of the 
severall Dutyes, Powers and Lymitts of every such Ofiice and Place, and the 
formes of such Oathes, not being contrary to the Lawes and Statutes of this our 
Realme of England, to bee Administred for the Executon of the said severall 
Offices and Places ; As alsoe for the disposeing and Ordering of the Electon of 
such of the said Officers as are to bee Annually Chosen, and of such others as 
shall succeed in case of death or removall, and Administring the said Oath to the 
new Elected Officers, and Grauuting necessary Comissions, and for impositon 
of lawfuU Fines, Mulcts, Imprisonment or other Punishment vpon Offenders and 
Delinquents, according the Course of other Corporatons within this our Kingdome 
of England, and the same Lawes, fines. Mulcts and Executons to alter, change, re- 
voke, adnull, release or Pard<m, vnder their Comon Seale, As by the said Gen- 
eral! Assembly or the maior part of them shall bee thought fitt ; And for the 
directing, ruleing and disposeing of all other matters and things whereby our said 
people. Inhabitants there, may bee soe religiously, peaceably and civilly Governed 
as their good life and orderly Conversatou may vvynn and invite the Natives of 
the Country to the knowledge and obedience of the onely true God and Saviour 
of mankind, and the Christian faith, which in our Royall intentons and the Ad- 
ventm'ers free profession is the onely and principall end of this Plantaton ; "Wil- 
liog, Commanding and requireing, and by these presents, for vs, our heires 
and Successors, Ordaineing and appointeing That all such Lawes, Statutes and 
Ordinances, Instructons, Impositons and Direetons as shall bee soe made by the 
Governor, Deputy Governor and Assistants, as aforesaid, and published in write- 
ing vnder their Comon Seale, shall carefully and duely bee observed, kept, per- 
formed and putt in executon, according to the true intent and meaning of the 
same. Aascl these our letters Patent, or the Duplicate or Exemplificaton 
thereof, shall bee to all and every such Officers, Superiors and inferiors, from 
tyme to tyme for the Putting of the same Orders, Lawes, Statutes, Ordinances, 
Instructons and Direetons in due Executon, against vs, our heires and Successors, 
a sufficient warrant and discharge. Aud wee doe f iti'tSaer, for vs, our 
heires and Successors, give and Graunt vnto the said Governor and Company and 
their Successors, by these presents. That itt shall and may bee lawfuU to and for 
the Cheife Commanders, Governors and Officers of the said Company for the 
tyme being whoe shall bee resident in the parts of New England hereafter men- 
toned, and others inhabiting there by their leave, admittance, appointment or di- 
recton, from tvme to tyme and att all tymes hereafter, for their speciall defence 
and safety, to Assemble, jNIartiall, Array and putt in Warlike posture the Inhabit- 
ants of the said Colony, and to Commissionate, Impower and authorise such Per- 

31 



482 APPENDIX. 

son or Persons as they shall thinke titt to lead and Conduct the said Inhabitants, 
and to encounter, expulse, repell and resist by force of Armes, as well by Sea as 
by land. And alsoe to kill, Slay and destroy, by all fitting wayes, enterprizes and 
means whatsoever, all and every such Person or Persons as shall att any tyme 
hereafter Attempt or enterprize the distructon, invasion, detriment or annoyance 
of the said Inhabitants or Plantaton, And to vse and exercise the Law Martiall 
in such Cases onely as occasion shall require. And to take or surprize by all 
wayes and meanes whatsoever, all and every such Person and Persons, with their 
Shipps, Armour, Ammuniton and other goods of such as shall in such hostile 
manner invade or attempt the defeating of the said Plantaton or the hurt of the 
said Company and Inhabitants ; and vpon iust Causes to invade and destroy the 
Natives or other Enemyes of the said Colony. Nevertlielesse, Our Will 
and pleasure is, And wee doe hereby Declare vnto all Christian Kings, Prin- 
ces and States, That if any Persons which shall hereafter bee of the said Com- 
pany or Plantaton, or any other, by appointment of the said Governor and Com- 
pany for the tyme being, shall att any tyme or tymes hereafter Robb or Spoile by 
Sea or by land, and doe any hurt, violence or vnlawfuU hostillity to any of the 
Subiects of vs, our heires or Successors, or any of the Subiects of any Prince or 
State beinge then in league with vs, our heires or Successors, vpon Complaint of 
such iniury done to any such Prince or State, or their Subiects, wee, our heires 
and Successors, will make open Proclamaton within any parts of our Real me of 
England fitt for that purpose. That the Person or Persons commitinge any such 
Robbery or Spoile, shall within the tyme lymitted by such Proclamaton, make full 
restituton or satisfacton of all such iniuries done or committed, Soe as the said 
Prince or others soe complayneing may bee fully satisfied and contented. And if 
the said Person or Persons whoe shall committ any such Robbery or Spoile shall 
not make satisfacton accordingly, within such tyme soe to bee limitted, That then 
itt shall and may be lawfull for vs, our heires and Successors, to putt such Person 
or Persons out of our Allegiance and Protecton. And that it shall and may bee 
lawfull and free for all Princes or others to Prosecute with hostility such Offenders 
and every of them, their and every of their Procurers, ayders, Abettors and 
Councellors in that behalfe. Provided, alsoe, and our expresse will and 
pleasure is. And wee doe by these presents for vs, our heires and Suc- 
cessors, Ordeyne and appointe that these presents shall not in any manner hinder 
any of our loveing Subiects whatsoever to vse and exercise the Trade of Fishinge 
vpon the Coast of New England in America, but they and every or any of them 
shall have full and free power and liberty to contynue and vse the said Trade of 
Fishing vpon the said Coast, in any of the Seas therevnto adioyning, or any Armes 
of the Seas or Salt Water Rivers where they have byn accustomed to Fish, And 
to build and sett vpon the wast land belonging to the said Colony of Conecticutt, 
such Wharfes, Stages and workehouses as shall bee necessary for the Salting, 
dryeing and keepeing of their Fish to bee taken or gotten vpon that Coast, — any 
thinge in these presents conteyned to the contrary notwithstanding. And 
KnOAVe yee f urtlier, That Wee, of our more abundant grace, certaine 
knowledge and meere moton have given, Graunted and Confirmed, And by 
theis present"!, for vs, our heires and Successors, I>oe give, Graunt and Con- 



APPENDIX. 483 

firme vnto the said Governor and Compan}' and their Successors, All that parte 
of our Dominions in Newe England in America bounded on the East by Norro- 
gancett River, comonly called Norrogancett Bay, where the said River falleth 
into the Sea, and on the North by the lyne of the Massachusetts Plantation, and 
on the South by the Sea, and in longitude as the lyne of the Massachusetts Colo- 
ny, runinge from East to West ; that is to say, from the said Narrogancett Bay 
on the East to the South Sea on the West parte, with the Islands thereunto ad- 
ioyneinge. Together with all firme lands, Soyles, Grounds, Havens, Ports, Rivei-s, 
W^aters, Fishings, Mynes, Myneralls, Precious Stones, Quarries, and all and sin- 
guler other Comodities, lurisdictons. Royalties, Priviledges, Francheses, Prehem- 
inences and hereditaments whatsoever within the said Tract, Bounds, lands and 
Islands aforesaid, or to them or any of them belonging, Xo Iiavc and to 
hold the same vnto the said Governor and Company, their Successors and As- 
signes, for ever vpon Trust and for the vse and benefitt of themselves and their 
Associates, freemen of the said Colony, their heires and Assignes, To bee 
bolden of vs, our heires and Successors, as of our Manor of East Greenewich, 
in Free and Comon Soceage, and not in Capite nor by Knights Service, 3rield> 
ing and Payinge therefore to vs, om* heires and Successors, onely the 
Fifth parte of all the Oare of Gold and Silver vi-hich from tyme to tyme and att 
all tymes hereafter shall bee there gotten, had or obteyned, in liew of all Servi- 
ces, Dutyes and Demaunds whatsoever, to bee to vs, our heires or Successors, 
therefore or thereout rendered, made or paid. And lastly. Wee doe for vs, 
our heires and Successors, Graunt to the said Governor and Company and their 
Successors, by these presents, that these our Letters Patent shall bee firme, good 
and effectuall in the lawe to all intents, Constructons and purposes whatsoever, ae- 
cordinge to our true intent and meaneing herein before Declared, as shall bee 
Construed, reputed and adiudged most favourable on the behalf e and for the best 
benefitt and behoofe of the said Governor and Company and their Successors, 
Althougb Expresse menton of the true yearely value or cer- 
teinty of the premises, or of any of them, or of any other Guifts or Graunts by vs 
or by any of our Progenitors or Predecessors heretofore made to the said Govern- 
or and Company of the English Colony of Conecticutt in New England in America 
aforesaid in theis presents is not made, or any Statute, Act, Ordinance, Provision, 
Proelamaton or Restricton heretofore had, made. Enacted, Ordeyned or Provided, 
or any other matter. Cause or thinge whatsoever to the contrary thereof in any 
wise notwithstanding. In "^vitnes whereof, wee have caused these our Let- 
ters to bee made Patent : "(Vitnes our Selfe, att Westminster, the three and 
Twentieth day of Aprill, in the Fowerteenth yeare of our Reigne. 

By writt of Privy Seale. Ho-ward. 



484: APPEJSDLS. 



C. 

Letter of His Majesty Charles II. to Connecticut, April 10th, 1666. 
"Charles R., 

" Trusty and well beloved, we greet you well, having received so full and satis- 
factory an account from our commissioners, both of the good reception you have 
given them, and also of your dutifulness and obedience to us, we can not but let 
you know how much we are pleased therewith, judging that respect of yours 
towards our officers to be the true and natural fruit which demonstrates what 
fidelity and affection towards us is rooted in your hearts ; and although your car- 
riage doth of itself most justly deserve our praise and approbation, yet it seems 
to be set off with the more lustre by the contrary deportment of the colony of the 
Massachusetts, as if by their refractoriness they had designed to recommend and 
heighten the merit of your compliance with our directions, for the peaceable and 
good government of our subjects in those parts ; you may therefore assure your- 
selves that we shall never be unmindful of this your loyal and dutiful behavior, 
but shall, upon all occasions, take notice of it to your advantage, promising you 
our constant protection and royal favor, in all things that may concern your safety, 
peace and welfare ; and so we bid you farewell. 

"Given at our Court, at Whitehall, on the 10th day of April, 1666, in the 
eighteenth year of our reign. By His Majesty's command. 
'' Superscribed to our trusty and well beloved, the gov- % 

ernor and council of the colony of Connecticut, in ( WILLIAM MORRICE." 

New England." ' 



D. 

" New Haven's case stated. 

" Honored and beloved in the Lord, — We, the General Court of New Haven 
colony, being sensible of the wrongs which this colony hath lately suffered by 
your unjust pretenses and encroachments upon our just and proper rights, have 
unanimously consented, though with grief of heart, being compelled thereunto, to 
declare unto you, and unto all whom the knowledge thereof may concern, what 
yourselves do or may know to be true as followeth. 

" 1. That the first beginners of these plantations by the sea-side in these west- 
ern parts of New England, being engaged to sundry friends in Loudon, and in 
other places about London (who purposed to plant, some with them in the same 
town, and others as near to thoin as they might) to provide for themselves some 
convenient places by the sea-side, arrived at Boston in the Massachusetts, (having 
a special right in their patent, two of them being joint purchasers of it with others, 
and one of them a patentee, and one of the assistants chosen for the New England 



APPENDIX. 485 

company in Lonflon,) where they abode all the winter following ; but not finding 
there a place suitable to their purpose, were persuaded to view these parts, which 
those that viewed approved ; and before their removal, finding that no English 
•were planted in any place from the fort (called Saybrook) to the Dutch, proposed 
to purchase of the Indians, the natural proprietors of those lands, that whole tract 
of land by the sea-coast, for themselves and those that should come to them ; which 
they also signified to their friends in Hartford in Connecticut colony, and desired 
that some fit men from thence might be employed in that business, at their proper 
cost and charges who wrote to them. Unto which letter having received a satis- 
factory answer, they acquainted the Court of magistrates of Massachusetts colony 
with their purpose to remove and the grounds of it, and with their consent began 
a plantation in a place situated by the sea, called by the Indians Quillipiack ; 
which they did purchase of the Indians the true proprietors thereof, for themselves 
and their posterity ; and have quietly possessed the same about six and twenty 
years ; and have buried great estates in buildings, fencings, clearing the ground, 
and in all sorts of husbandry ; without any help from Connecticut or dependence 
on them. And by voluntary consent among themselves, they settled a civil court 
And government among themselves, upon such fundamentals as were established 
in Massachusetts by allowance of their patent, whereof the then governor of the 
Bay, the Right Worshipful Mr. Winthrop, sent us a copy to improve for our best 
advantage. These fundamentals all the inhabitants of the said Quillipiack approv- 
ed, and bound themselves to submit unto and maintain ; and chose Theophilus 
Eaton, Esq. to be their governor, with as good right as Connecticut settled their 
government among themselves, and continued it above twenty years without any 
patent. 

" 2. That when the help of Mr. Eaton our governor, and some others from 
Quillipiack, was desired for ending of a controversy at Wethersfield, a town in 
Connecticut colony, it being judged necessary for peace that one party should 
remove their dwellings, upon equal satisfying terms proposed, the governor, 
magistrates, «fec. of Connecticut offered for their part, that if the party that would 
remove should find a fit place to plant in upon the river, Connecticut would grant 
it to them , and the governor of Quillipiack (now called New Haven) and the 
rest there present, joined with him, and promised that if they should find a fit 
place for themselves by the sea-side. New Haven would grant it to them, which 
accordingly New Haven performed ; and so the town of Stamford began, and be- 
came a member of New Haven colony, and so continueth unto this day. Tlius 
in a public assembly in Connecticut, was the distinct right of Connecticut upon 
the river and of New Haven by the sea-side, declared, with the consent of the 
governor, magistrates, ministers, and better sort of the people of Connecticut at 
the time. 

" 3. That sundry other townships by the sea-side and Southold on Long Island, 
(being settled in their inheritances by right of purchase of their Indian proprie- 
tors,) did voluntarily join themselves to New Haven, to be all under one jurisdic- 
tion, by a firm engagement to the fundamentals formerly settled in New Haven ; 
whereupon it was called New Haven Colony. The General Court, being thus 
constituted, chose the said Theophilus Eaton, Esq., a man of singular wisdom, 



486 APPENDIX. 

godliness, and experience, to be the governor of New Haven Colony 5 and they 
chose a competent number of magistrates and other officers for the several towns. 
Mr. Eaton so well managed that great trust, that he was chosen governor every 
year while he lived. All this time Connecticut never questioned what was done 
at New Haven ; nor pretended any right to it, or to any of the towns belonging 
to this colony ; nor objected against our being a distinct colony. 

" 4. That when the Dutch claimed a right to New Haven, and all along the 
coast by the sea-side, it being reported they would set up the Prince of Orange's 
arms, the governor of New Haven, to prevent that, caused the king of England's 
arms to be fairly cut in wood, and set upon a post in the highway by the sea- 
side, to vindicate the right of the English, without consulting Connecticut or 
seeking their concurrence therein. 

" 5. That in the year 1643, upon weighty considerations, an union of four dis- 
tinct colonies was agreed upon by all New England, (except Rhode Island,) ia 
their several general courts, and was established by a most solemn confederation ; 
whereby they bound themselves mutually to preserve unto each colony its entire 
jurisdiction within itself, respectively, and to avoid the putting of two into one by 
any act of their own without consent of the commissioners from the four United 
Colonies, which were from that time, and still are, called and known by the 
title of the four United Colonies of New England. Of these colonies. New 
Haven was and is one. And in this solemn confederation Connecticut joined 
with the rest, and with us. 

" 6. That in the year 1644, the general court for New Haven colony, then sit- 
ting in the town of New Haven, agreed unanimously to send to England for a 
patent; and in the year 1645, committed the procuring of it to Mr. Grigson, 
one of our magistrates, who entered upon his voyage in January that year, from 
New Haven, furnished with some beaver in order thereunto as we suppose. But 
by the providence of God, the ship and all the passengers and goods were lost at 
sea, in their passage towards England, to our great [grief] and the frustration of 
the design for the time ; after which the troubles in England put a stop to our 
proceedings therein. This was done with the con.sent and desire of Connecticut 
to concur with New Haven therein. Whereby the difference of times, and of 
men's spirits in them, may be discovered. For then the magistrates of Connec- 
ticut with consent of their General Court, knowing our purposes, desired to join 
with New Haven in procuring the patent, for common privileges to both in their 
different jurisdictions, and left it to Mr. Eaton's wisdom to have the patent framed 
accordingly. But now they seek to procure a patent without the concurrence of 
New Haven ; and contrary to our minds expressed before the patent was sent for, 
and to their own promise, and to the terms of the confederation, and without 
sufficient warrant from their patent, they have invaded our right, and seek to in- 
volve New Haven under Connecticut jurisdiction. 

" 7. That in the year 1646, when the commissioners first met at New Haven, 
Keift, the then Dutch governor, by letters expostulated with the commissioners, 
by what warrant they met at New Haven without his consent, seeing it and all 
the sea-coast belonged to his principals in Holland, and to the lords the States 
General. The answer to that letter was framed by Mr. Eaton, governor of New 



APPENDIX. 487 

Haven, and then president of the commission, approved by all the commissioners, 
and sent in their names with their consent to the then Dutch governor, who never 
replied therennto. 

" 8. That this colony in the reign of the late King Charles the First, received a 
'letter from the committee of Lords and Commons for foreign plantations, then 
sitting at Westminster, which letter was delivered to our governor, Mr. Eaton, 
for freeing the several distinct colonies of New England from molestations by the 
appealing of troublesome spirits unto England, whereby they declared that they 
had dismissed all causes depending before them from New England, and that they 
advised all inhabitants to submit to their respective governments there established, 
and to acquiesce when their causes shall be there heard and determined, as it is to 
be seen more largely expressed in the original letter which we have, subscribed. 
' Your assured friends, 

' Pembroke, ' Manchester, * Warwick, 

' W. Say and Seal, ' Fa. Dacre, &c. ' Denbigh.' 

" In this order they subscribed their names with their own hands, which we 
have to show, and they inscribed or directed this letter — 'To our worthy friends 
the governor and assistants of the plantations of New Haven in New England.' 
Whereby you may clearly see that the right honorable, the Earl of Warwick, and 
the Lord Viscount Say and Seal, (lately one of his majesty King Charles the Sec- 
ond's most honorable privy council, as also the right honorable Earl of Manches- 
ter still is,) had no purpose, after New Haven colony, situated by the sea-side, was 
settled to be a distinct government, that it should be put under the patent for 
Connecticut, whereof they had only framed a copy before any house was erected 
by the sea-side from the fort to the Dutch, which yet was not signed and sealed 
by the last king for a patent ; nor had you any patent till your agent, Mr. Win- 
throp, procured it about two years since. 

" 9. That in the year 1650, when the commissioners for the four united colonies 
of New England, met at Hartford, the now Dutch governor being then and 
there present, Mr. Eaton the then governor of New Haven colony, complained of 
the Dutch governor's encroaching upon our colony of New Haven, by taking un- 
der his jurisdiction a township beyond Stamford, called Greenwich. All the com- 
missioners, (as well for Connecticut as for the other colonies,) concluded that 
Greenwich and four miles beyond it belongs to New Haven jurisdiction ; where- 
unto the Dutch governor then yielded, and restored it to New Haven colony. 
Thus were our bounds westward settled by consent of all. 

" 10. That when the honored governor of Connecticut, John Winthrop, Esq., 
had consented to undertake a voyage for England to procure a patent for Connec- 
ticut in the year 1661, a friend warned him by letter, not to have his hand in so 
unrighteous an act, as so far to extend the line of their patent, that the colony of 
New Haven should be involved within it. For answer thereunto, he was pleased 
to certify that friend, in two letters which he wrote from two several places before 
his departure, that no such thing was intended, but rather the contrary ; and that 
the magistrates had agreed and expressed in the presence of some ministers, that 
if their line should reach us, (which they knew not, the copy being in England,) 



488 APPENDIX. 

yet New Haven colony should be at liberty to join with them or not. This 
agreement, so attested, made us secure, who also could have procured a patent for 
ourselves within our own known bounds according to purchase, without doing any 
wrong to Connecticut in their just bounds and limits. 

"11. That notwithstanding all the premises, in the year 1662, when you had 
received your patent under his majesty's hand and seal, contrary to your promise 
and solemn confederation, and to common equity, at your first general assembly, 
(which yet could not be called general without us, if we were under your patent, 
seeing none of us were by you called thereunto,) you agreed among yourselves, to 
treat with New Haven colony about union, by your conmiissioners chosen for that 
end within two or three days after the assembly was dissolved. But before the 
ending of that session, you made an unrighteous breach in our colony, by taking 
under your patent some of ours from Stamford, and from Guilford, and from 
Southold, contrary to your engagements to New Haven colony, and without our 
consent or knowledge. This being thus done, some sent from you to treat with 
us, showed some of ours your patent ; which being read, they declared to yours 
that New Haven colony is not at all mentioned in your patent, and gave you some 
reasons why they believed that the king did not intend to put this colony under 
Connecticut without our desire or knowledge ; and they added that you took a 
preposterous course, in first dismembering this colony, and after that treating with 
it about union ; which is as if one man proposing to treat with another about 
union, first cut off from him an arm, and a leg, and an ear, then to treat with him 
about union. Reverend Mr. Stone also, the teacher of the Church at Hartford, 
was one of the committee, who being asked what he thought of this action, an- 
swered, that he would not justify it. 

" 12. After that conference, our committee sent, by order of the General Court, 
by two of our magistrates, and two of our elders, a writing contiiining sundry 
other reasons for our not joining with j^ou ; who also, finding that you persisted 
in your own will and way, declared to you our own resolution to appeal to his 
majesty to explain his true intendment and meaning in your patent, whether it 
was to subject this colony under it or not ; being persuaded, as we still are, that it 
neither was nor is his royal will and pleasure to confound this colony with yours, 
which would destroy the so long continued and so strongly settled distinction of 
the four United Colonies of New England, without our desire or knowledge. 

" 13. That, accordingly, we forthwith sent our appeal to be humbly presented 
to his Majesty, by some friends in London, yet out of our dear and tender respect 
to Mr. Winthrop's peace and honor, some of us advised those friends to commu- 
nicate our papers to Honored Mr. Winthrop himself, to the end that we might 
find out some effectual expedient, to put a good end to this uncomfortable differ- 
ence between you and us, — else to present our humble address to his Majesty. 
Accordingly it was done ; and Mr. Winthrop stopped the proceeding of our ap- 
peal, by undertaking to our friends that matters should be issued to our satisfac- 
tion, and in order thereunto that he was pleased to write a letter to Major Mason, 
your deputy governor, and the rest of the court of Connecticut Colony, from 
London, dated March 7, 1663, in these words : 



/ APPEJSTDIX. 489 

" Gentlemen : I am informed by some gentlemen who are authorized to seek 
remedy here, that since you had the late patent there hath been injury done to 
the government at New Haven, and in particular at Greenwich and Stamford, in 
admitting several of the inhabitants there unto freedom with you, and appointing 
officers which hath caused division in the said towns which may prove of danger- 
ous consequence if not kindly prevented. I do hope the sin of it is from misun- 
derstanding and not from design of prejudice to that colony ; for when I gave 
assurance to their friends that their rights and interests should not be disregarded 
or prejudiced by the patent, but if both governments would with unanimous 
agreement unite in one, their friends judge of advantage to both. And I must 
further let you know that testimony here doth affirm that I gave assurance before 
authority here, that it was not intended to meddle with any town or plantation 
that was settled under any other government. Had it been otherwise intended 
or declared, it had been injurious in taking out the patent, not to have inserted a 
proportionable number of their names in it. Now upon the whole, having had 
serious conference with their friends authorized by them, and with others who are 
friends to both, to prevent a tedious and chargeable trial and uncertain events here, 
I promise them to give you speedily this representation how far you are 
engaged. If any injury hath been done by admitting of freemen or appointing 
officers or other unjust intermeddling with New Haven colony, in one kind or 
other, without the approbation of the government, that it be forthwith recalled, 
and that for the future there will be no imposing in any kind upon them, nor ad- 
mitting of any members without mutual consent, but that all things be acted as 
loving neighboring colonies as before such patent was granted, and unto this I 
judge you are obliged. I have engaged to their agent here that this will be by 
you performed, and they have thereupon forborne to give you or me any further 
trouble ; but they do not doubt that upon future consideration there may be some 
right understanding between both governments, that a union of friendly joining 
may be established to the satisfaction of all, which at my arrival I shall endeavor 
(God willing,) to promote, not having more at present in the case, I rest your hum- 
ble servant, John Wintiirop." 

The copy of this letter was sent to Mr. Leete, unsealed, with Mr. "Winthrop's 
consent, and was written with his own hand ; and the substance of this agree- 
ment between some of our friends in London is fully attested by them in their 
letters to some of us. Say not that Mr. Winthrop in acting in this agreement is 
nothing to you, for he acted therein as your public and common agent and pleni- 
potentiary, and therefore his acting in that capacity and relation are yours in him. 

" 14. That after Mr. Winthrop's return, when some from you treated again 
with our committee about union, it was answered by our committee that we could 
not admit any treaty with you about that matter till we might treat as an entire 
colony, our members being restored to us who have been unrighteously withheld 
from us, whereby those parties have been many ways injurious to our government 
and disturbers of our peace — which is and will be a bar to any such treaty, till it 
be removed, for till then we cannot join with you in one government without a 
fellowship in your sin. 



490 APPENDIX. 

" 15. That after this, nothing being done to our just satisfaction, at the last meet- 
ing of the commissioners from the four colonies of New England, at Boston, on 
the — day of November 1663, the comnjissioners from New Haven colony 
exhibited to the Commissioners their confederates a complaint of the great injuries 
done to this colony by Connecticut in the presence of your commissioners, who 
for answer thereunto showed what treaties they had with New Haven ; but that 
plea was inconsiderable, though you persisting unrighteously in withholding our 
members from us, whereby our wounds remain unhealed, being kept open and con- 
tinually bleeding. The result of the commissioners' debates about that complaint 
was in these words : 

" The commissioners of Massachusetts and Plymouth, having considered the 
complaints exhibited by New Haven against Connecticut for infringing their power 
of jurisdiction, as in the complaint is more particularly expressed, together with 
the answer returned thereto by Connecticut commissioners, with some debates 
and conferences that have passed between them, do judge meet to declare that 
the said colony of New Haven being owned in the articles of confederation as 
distinct from Connecticut, and having been so owned by the colonies in their 
present meeting in all their actings, may not, by any act of violence, have their 
liberty of jurisdiction infringed upon by any other of the united colonies, without 
breach of the articles of confederation ; and that where any act of power hath 
been exerted against their authority, that the same ought to be recalled, and their 
power reserved to them entire until such time as in an orderly way it shall be other- 
wise disposed of, and for particular grievances mentioned in the complaint, they 
ought to be referred to the next meeting at Hartford, &c." 

" Now we suppose that when they speak of disposing of it otherwise than in an 
orderly way, they mean with our free consent, there being no other orderly way ; 
by an act or power of the united colonies for disposing of the colony of New 
Haven, otherwise than as it is a distinct colony, having entire jurisdiction within 
itself, which our confederates were bound by their solemn confederation to preserve 
inviolate. 

" 16. That before your General Assembly in October last, 1663, our committee 
sent a letter unto the said assembly, whereby they did request that our members 
by you unjustly sent from us, should be restored to us according to our former 
frequent desires and according to Mr. Winthrop's letter and promises to authority 
in England, and according to justice and the conclusion of the commissioners at 
their last session in Boston, whereunto you returned a real negative answer, con- 
trary to all promises, by making one Brown your constable at Stamford, who hath 
been sundry ways injurious to us, and hath scandalously acted in the liighest 
degree of contempt not only against the authority of this jurisdiction, but also of 
the king himself, pulling down with contumelies the declaration which was sent 
thither by the court of magistrates for this colony in the king's name, and com- 
manded to be set up in a public place that it might be read and obeyed by all his 
majesty's subjects inhabiting our town of Stamford. 

" 17. That thereupon at a General Court held at New Haven for this jurisdic- 
tion the 22d day of October 1663, the deputies for this General Court signified 
the minds of our freemen as not all satisfied with the proposals of the committee 



APPENDIX. 491 

from Connecticut, but thought there should be no more treaty with them unless 
they first restore us to our right state again. The matter was largely debated, 
and this General Court considering how they of Connecticut do cast our motion 
in the forementioned letter and gave us no answer but that contrary thereunto as 
is reported, have further encouraged those of Guilford and Stamford, therefore this 
court did them order that no treaty be made by this colony with Connecticut be- 
fore such acts of power exerted upon any of our towns, be revoked and recalled 
according to Hon. Mr. Winthrop's letter enjoining the same common advice and 
our frequent desires. 

" 18. That in this juncture of time we received two letters from England men- 
tioned in the following declaration published by the court of magisti'ates upon that 
occasion in these words : 

" Whereas, This colony hath received one letter under his majesty's royal hand 
and seal manual in red wax annexed, bearing date the 21st of June 1663, from 
his Royal Court at Whitehall, directed to his trusty and well beloved subjects, the 
governor and deputy governor and assistants of the Massachusetts, Plymouth, 
New Haven, and Connecticut colonies in New England ; and one other letter 
from the Lords of his Majesty's most Hon. Privy Council, bearing date the 24th 
of June in the year aforesaid, superscribed for his majesty's special service, and 
directed to our very loving friend, John Endicott, Esq., govei-nor of his majesty's 
plantation in New England, and to the governor and council of the colony of 
Massachusetts, &c. respectively, and by order of the General Court at Boston 
recorded in the court records, it is particularly directed to the colony of New 
Haven, in which letters his majesty hath commanded this colony many matters of 
right very much respecting his majesty's service and the good of this county in 
general, expecting upon displeasure the strict observance thereof, which this court, 
his colony being situated by the sea side and so fidly accommodated to fulfil his 
majesty's commands are resolved to their utmost to obey and fulfil ; but in their 
consultation thereabouts, they find through the disloyal and seditious principles 
and practices of some men of inconsiderable interests, some of his majesty's good 
subjects in this colony have been seduced to send themselves from tliis colony, by 
which decision his majesty's affairs in these parts are like to suffer, the peace of 
this country to be endangered, and the heathen among us scandalized, in case 
some speedy course be not taken for the prevention thereof, the which, if we 
should connive at, especially at this time, his majesty having so particularly direc- 
ted his royal commands, to this colony as aforesaid, we might justly incur his dis- 
pleasure against us. This court doth, therefore, in his majesty's name, require all 
the members and inhabitants of this colony heartily to close in with the endeavors 
of the governor and assistants thereof for fulfilling his majesty's commands in the 
said letters expressed, and in order thereunto to return to their obedience, and 
paying their arrears and rates for defraying the necessary charges of the colony 
and other dues within six days after the publication hereof, unto such person or 
persons as are or shall be appointed to collect the same in accordance to the laws 
and order of this colony, all which being done, this court will forever pass by all 
former disobedience to this government ; but if any shall presume to stand out 
against his majesty's pleasure so declared as aforesaid concerning this colony, at 



492 APPENDIX. 

their peril be it. This court shall not fail to call the said persons to strict account 
and proceed against them as disloyal to his majesty and disturbers of the peace of 
this colony, according to law. 

" This declaration being grounded in general upon his majesty's command, ex- 
pressed in these letters, and in special in order to the prevention of his majesty's 
colonies, the letter of our governor requiring strict observance of the same under 
penalty of displeasure, of one thousand pounds fine, and therefore in case any dif- 
ference should arise to his majesty on these accounts we must be enforced to lay 
the cause of it at your door, because when it was sent to the several towns of that 
colony and set up in public places to be seen and read of all that all might obey it, 
it was at Stamford violently plucked down by Brown, your constable, and with 
reproachful speeches rejected, though sent in his majesty's name and authority of 
our court of magistrates ; and after it was published at Guilford, Bray Rossiter 
and his son hastened to Connecticut to require your aid against this government, 
which accordingly you too hastily granted, for on the 30th day of December 1663, 
two of your magistrates with sundry young men and your marshal came speedily 
to Guilford accompanied with Rossiter and his son, and countenancing them and 
their party against the authority of this General Court, that you knew to be 
obnoxious they were formerly to this jurisdiction for contempt of authority 
and seditious practices, and that they have been the ring-leaders of this rent, and 
that Bray Rossiter, the lather, hath been long and still is a man of turbulent, rest- 
less, factious spirit, and whose design you have cause to suspect to be to cause a 
war between these two colonies or to ruin New Haven colony, without sending a 
writing before to our governor to be informed concerning the truth in this matter. 
Sundry horse, we are infoi-med, accompanied them to Guilford, whither they came 
at an unseasonable time, about 10 o'clock in the night, those short days when you 
might rationally think that all people were gone to bed, and by shooting sundry 
guns, some of yours of their party in Guilford alarmed the town, which, when the 
govei'nor took notice of, and of the unsatisfying answers given to such as inquired 
the reason of that disturbance, he suspected that, not without cause, hostile attempts 
were intended by their company ; whereupon he sent a letter to New Haven to 
inform the magistrates there concerning matters at Guilford, that many were 
affi'ighted ; and he desired that the magistrates at New Haven would presently 
come to their succor, and as many of the troopers as could be got, alleging for a 
reason his apprehensions of their desperate resolutions. The governor's messen- 
gers all excited to haste as apprehending danger, and reporting to them at Bran- 
ford, they went up in arms, hastening to their relief at Guilford which the governor 
required with speed. Hereupon New Haven was also alarmed that night by beat- 
ing the drum, &e. to warn the town militia to be ready. This fear was not cause- 
less, for what else could be gathered from the preparations of pistols, bullets, 
swords, &c. whicn they brought with them, and by the threatening speeches given 
out by some of them, as is attested by the depositions of some, subscriptions of 
others, which we have by us to show when need require ; and your two magis- 
trates themselves, who ought to have the king's peace among their own party in 
their own speeches, threatened our governor that if any thing was done against 
these men, viz., Rossiter and his party, Connecticut would take it as done against 



APPENDIX. 493 

themselves, for they were bound to protect them ; and they rose high in threaten- 
ings. Yet they joined therewith their design of another conference with New 
Haven, pretending their purpose of granting to us what we should desire, so far 
as they could, if we would unite with them ; but they held our members from us 
and upheld them in their animosities against us. Is this the way to union ? And 
what can you grant us which we have not in our own right within ourselves, with- 
out you ? Yea, it is the birthright of our posterity which we may not barter 
away from them by treaties with you. It is our purchased inheritance, which no 
wise man would part with upon a treaty to receive in lieu thereof a lease of the 
same upon your terms who have right thereunto. And why is our union with 
you by coming under your patent urged now as necessary for peace, seeing we 
have enjoyed peace mutually wliile we have been distinct colonies for about twenty 
years past ? And why do you separate the things which God hath joined together 
in righteousness and peace — seeing you persist in your unrighteous dealing and 
persuade us to peace ? It is true we all came to New England for the same ends, 
and that we all agree in some main things, but it doth not follow from thence we 
ought therefore to unite with you in the same jurisdiction, for the same may be 
said of all the united colonies which nevertheless are distinct colonies. 

" 20. That upon a more diligent search of your patent we find that New Haven 
colony is not included within the line of your patent, for we suppose that your 
bounds according to the expression of your patent may be, in a just grammatical 
construction, so cleared that this colony and every part of it, may be mathemati- 
cally demonstrated to be exempted from it. 

"21. That the premises being thoroughly v^eighed, it will be your wisdom 
and way to desist wholly from endeavoring to draw us into a union under your 
patent by any treaty for the future, and apply yourselves to your duty towards 
God, the king, and us. 1st. Towards God, that you fear him and therefore 
repent of your unrighteous dealings towards us and repair what you have done 
amiss by restoring our numbers without delay unto us again, that you may escape 
the wrath of God which is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and 
against all that despise his holy name, especially among the heathen, which you 
have done thereby. 2d. Towards the king, that you may honor him by looking 
at us as a distinct colony within ourselves as you see by the premises his majesty 
doth, and by restoring to us our former entire state and our numbers in obedience 
to his majesty, who hath commanded us a distinct colony to serve him in weighty 
affairs, and wherein if you hinder us, (as you will if you still withhold our mem- 
bers from us as much as in you lieth,) you will incur his majesty's just and high 
displeasure, who hath not given you in your patent the least appearance of just 
grounds for your laying claim to us. 3d. To us, your neighbors, your brethren, 
your confederates by virtue whereof it is your duty to preserve unto us our colony, 
state power, and privileges against all other that would oppose us, therein or 
would impose upon us. Is Rossiter and his party of such value with you, that 
what this jurisdiction doth against them your colony will take it as done to them- 
selves ? But if it be done as one of your committee is reported to have expressed 
it, that you must perform your promise to them as Joshua and the elders of Israel 
did to the Gibeonites, do you not see the sundry disparities between that vow and 



494 APPENDIX. 

yours ? or do you indeed make confidence of your vow to Giheonites if you term 
them so; and without regard to your conscience break your promise and most 
solemn confederation to Israelites. Doubtless it will be safe for this colony to join 
in one government with persons of such principles and practices, and treaty will 
be able to bring us to it. 

We believe that our righteous God to whom we have solemnly commended and 
committed our righteous cause, will protect us against all that shall do any wrong 
or oppress us, neither will he at all doubt the justice of his majesty our king as 
well as yours, and of his most honorable council, but that upon leaving the business 
open before them they will effectually relieve against your unjust encroachments 
as the matter shall require. 

" We desire peace and love between us and that we may for the future live in 
love and peace together as distinct neighbor colonies, as we did about twenty years 
before you received and misunderstood and so abused your patent that your un- 
comfortable and afflictive exercises would issue herein. We have so long suffered 
for peace sake, now it is high time to bring that unbrotherly contest wherewith 
you have troubled us, to a peaceable issue. In order thereunto we do offer you 
this choice, either to return our members unto us voluntarily, which will be your 
honor and a confirmation of your mutual love, or to remove them to some other 
plantation within your own bounds and free us wholly from you for we may not 
bear it that such seditious, disorderly persons shall continue within the towns of 
this colony to disturb our peace, disperse our government and disquiet our mem- 
bers, and disable us to obey the king's command. But if they stay where they 
now are, we shall take our time to proceed according to justice, especially with 
Brown for his contempt of the declaration and [his disregard] of the king's com- 
mands and authority in this jurisdiction, and with Bray Rossiter and his son for all 
their seditious practices. Lastly, for preventing any misapprehension, we como 
here to explain our meaning in any passages in this writing which may seem to 
reflect censure of unrighteous dealing with us upon your act in General Assembly, 
that we may mean only such as have been active against us therein. 

"For the commonwealth, by order of the General Court of New Haven 
Colony. 

" Jameb Bishop, Secretary. 

"New Haven, March 9, 1663^." 



APPENDIX. 



495 



STATE AND COLONIAL OFFICERS, 



FROM 1639 TO 1818. 



GOVERNORS. 



John Haynes, 

Edward Hopkins, 

George Wyllys, 

Thomas Welles, 

John Webster, 

John Winthrop 

William Leete, 

Robert Treat 

[Sir Edmund Andross,]. 

Robert Treat, 

Fitz John Winthrop,... . 

Gurdon Saltonstall, 

Joseph Talcott, 

Jonathan Law, 

Roger Wolcott, 

Thomas Fitoh, 

William Pitkin, 

Jonathan Trumbull,. . . . 

Matthew Griswold, 

Samuel Huntington, . . . . 

Oliver Woleott, 

Jonatiian Trumbull,. . . . 

John Treadwell, 

Roger Griswold, 

John Cotton Smith * 



1G58 



DEP. OR LT.-GOVERNORS. 



Roger Ludlow, 

John Haynes, 

George Wyllys, 

Edward Hopkins, .... 

Thomas Welles, 

John Webster, 

John Winthrop, 

John Mason, 

William Leete, 

Robert Treat, 

James Bishop, 

William Jones, 

Nathan Gold, 

.Joseph Talcott, 

Jonathan Law, 

Roger Wolcott, 

Thomas Fitch, 

William Pitkin 

Jonathan Trumbull,.. 
Matthew Griswold,.., 
Samuel Huntington,. . 

Oliver Wolcott, 

Jonathan Trumbull, . . 

John Treadwell, 

Roger Griswold, 

John Cotton Smith, . . 
Chauncey Goodrich,. 
Jonathan Ingersoll,t. . 



1639 
1640 
1641 
1643 
1654 
1655 
1658 
1660 
1669 
1676 
1683 
1692 
1708 
1724 
1724 
1741 
1750 
1754 
1766 
1769 
1784 
1786 
1796 
1798 
1809 
1811 
1813 
1816 



1648 
1652 

1653 
1659 



1669 
1676 
1708 
1692 
1697 
1724 
1724 
1741 
1750 
1754 
1766 
1769 
1784 
1786 
1796 
1798 
1809 
1811 
1813 
1815 
1818 



SECRETARIES OF STATE. 



Edward Hopkins,.. 
Thomas Welles, . . 

John Cullick, 

Daniel Clark, 

John Allen, 

Eleazer Kimberly,. 
Caleb Stanley, . . . . 



First 


Last 


No. 


chos'n. 


chos'n. yrs. 1 


1639 


1640 


1 


1640 


1648 


8 


1648 


1658 


10 


1658 


1667 


8 


1664 


1696 


28 


1696 


1709 


13 


1709 


1712 


3 



TREASURERS. 



Thomas Welles,. . 
William W^hiting, . 

John Talcott, 

John Talcott, 

William Pitkin, . . . 
Joseph Whiting,. . . 
John Whiting, . . . . 



1639 
1641 
1652 
16.''>9 
1678 
1679 
1718 



1652 
1648 
1659 
1678 
1679 
1718 
1749 



* The successors of Governor gmith, under the Constitution, have been, Oliver Wolcott, 
Gideon Tomlinson, John S. Peters, Henry W. Edwards, Samuel A. Foote, William W. 
Ellsworth, Chauncey F. Cleveland, Roger S. Baldwin, Isaac Toucey, Clark Bissell, Joseph Trum- 
bull, Thomas H. Seymour, Charles H. Pond, and Henry Dutton. 

t The Lieutenant-Governors under the Constitution have been— Jonathan Ingersoll, David Plant, 
John S. Peters, Thaddeus Belts, Ebenezer Stoddard, Charles Hawley, Wm. S. Holabird, Reuben 
Booth, Noyes Billings, Charles J. McCurdy, Thomus Backus, Charles H. Pond, and Alexander H. 
HoUey. 



496 



APPENDIX. 



SECRETARIES OF STATE 

Hezekiah Wyllys, 

George Wyllys, 

Samuel Wyllys, 

Thomas Day,* 



First 


Laat 


No. 


chos'u. 


chos'n. 


yrs. 


1712 


1735 


23 


1735 


1796 


61 


1796 


1S1(» 


14 


1810 


1818 


8 



TREASURERS. 



Nathaniel Stanley, 

Joseph Talcott, 

John Lawrence, 

Jedediah Huntington , 

Peter Colt, 

Andrew Kingsbury ,t. 



1749 
1755 
17G9 
1789 
1789 
1794 



1755 
1769 

17SS 
1789 
1794 
1818 



COMPTROLLERS. 



James Wadsworth 
Oliver Wolcott, . . . 
Ralph Pomroy, . . . . 



178G'1788 
1788 1789 
1789,1791 



COMPTROLLERS. 



Andrew Kingsbury, 

John Porter, 

Elisha CoIt,t 



First Last 
chos'n. ;hos'n. 

1791 1794 
17941 1806 
1806:1818 



ASSISTANTS. i 



JOHN HAYNES, Hartford, 

Roger Ludlow, Windsor and Fairfield, 

GEORGE WYLLYS, Hartford 

EDWARD HOPKINS, Hartford, 

THOMAS WELLES, Hartford, 

JOHN WEBSTER, Hartford, 

William Phelps, Windsor, 

William Whiting, Hartford, 

Matthew Allen, Hartford, 

William Hopkins [? Hill, Windsor,] 

John Mason, Windsor, Saybrook, & Norwich, 

William Swaine, Wethersfield, 

Henry Wolcott, Windsor, 

George Fenwick, Saybrook, 

John Cullick, Hartford, 

JOHN WINTHROP, New London, 

Henry Clarke, Windsor, 

John "Talcott, Hartford, 

Samuel Wyllj's, Hartford, 

Nathan Gold, Fail-field, 

George Phelps, Windsor, 

Matthew Allen, Windsor, 

Richard Treat, Wethersfield, 



Nom. 


EUc. 


1639 


1639 


1639 


1639 


1639 


1639 


1639 


1639. 


1639 


1639 


1639 


1639 




1639 


1641 


1641 


1641 




1641 


1641 




1642 


1643 


1643 




1643 


1644 


1644 




1648 


1649 


1651 


1650 


1650 


1654 


1654 


1654 


1654 


1657 


1657 


1658 


1658 


1658 


1658 


1658 


1658 



1653, died. 

1 654, to Va. 
1644, died. 

1657, to Eng. 
1659, died. 
1659, to Mass. 
1643. 

1648. 
(below.) 
1643. 

1671, died. 
1645. 

1655, died. 
1649. 

1658, to Bost. 
1676, died. 
1662. 

1659, died. 
1685, (below.) 
1658. (below.) 
1663. 

1668. 
1665. 



*The Secretaries of State, since the adoption of the Constitution, have been the following, viz. 
Thomas Day, Royal R. Hinman, Noah A. Phelps, Daniel P. Tyler, Charles VV. Bradley, John B. 
Robertson, Roger H. Mills, Hiram Weed, John P. C. Mather, and Oliver H. Perry. 

t The successors of Mr. Kingsbury, in the office of State Treasurer, have been — Isaac Spencer, 
Jeremiah Brown, Hiram Rider, Jabez L. White, Joseph B. Gilbert, Alonzo W. Birge, Henry D. 
Smith, Elisha Stearns, Daniel W. Clark. 

t The Comptrollers since the adoption of the Constitution, have been — Elisha Colt, James Thomas, 
Elisha Phelps, Roger Huntington, Gideon Welles, William Field, Henry Kilbourn, Abijah Carring- 
ton, Mason Cleveland, Abijah Catlin, R. G. Pinney, John Dunham. 

t List of magistrates, generally called Assistants, who constituted the Upper House of the Assem- 
bly, and in early times were the Supreme Court of the State. They were the leading men of 
their times. The list is copied from the Connecticut Annual Register, for 1848. 

The CAPITALS indicate the Governors, and the small capitals the Deputy or Lieutenant- 
Governors. Those marked " died" deceased in office. 



APPENDIX. 



497 



ASSISTANTS. 



John Wells, Stratford, 

Alexander Knowles, Fairfield, 

Nathan Gold, Fairfield, 

Thurston Rayner, Wethersfield, 

John Taleott, Hartford, 

Daniel Clark, Windsor, 

John Allyn, Hartford , ? . . 

Henry Wolcott, Windsor, 

Samuel Sherman, Fairfield, 

Thurston Rayner, Wethersfield, 

James Richards, Hartford, 

WILLIAM LEFT, Guilford, 

William Jonss, New Haven, 

Benjamin Feijn, Milford, 

Jasper Crane, Eranford, 

Henry Wolcott, Windsor, 

Samuel Sherman, Stratford, 

Daniel Clark, Windsor, 

Alexander Bryant, Milford, 

James Bishop, New Haven, , 

Anthony Howkins, Farmiugton, , 

Thomas Welles, Hartford, 

James Richards, Hartford, , 

John Nash, New Haven, 

ROBERT TREAT, Milford, 

Thomas Topping, Branford, 

John Mason, Norwich, , 

Matthew Gilbert, New Haven, 

Andrew Leet, Guilford, 

John Wadsworth, Farmington, 

Robert Chapman, Say brook, 

James Fitch, Norwich, 

Samuel Mason, Stonington, 

Benjamin Newbury, Windsor, 

Samuel Taleott, Wethersfield, 

Giles Hamlin, Middletown, 

Samuel Willis, Hartford, 

[Fitz] John Winthrop, New London, . . 

John Burr, Fairfield, 

William Pitkin, Hartford, 

Daniel Wetherell, New London, 

Nathaniel Stanly, Hartford, 

Caleb Stanly, Hartford, 

Moses Mansfield, New Haven, 

JOHN WINTHROP, New London,. 

John Hamlin, Middletown, 

Jonathan Sellick, Stamford, 

Nathan Gold, Fairfield, , 

William Pitkin, Hartford, 

Joseph Curtice, Stratford, 

Samuel Willis, Hartford, 

Richard Christophers, New London,. . 

James Fitch, Norwich, 

John Chester, Wethersfield, 

Josiah Rossiter, Guilford, 

Peter Burr, Fairfield, 



Nom. 

1658 

1658 

(above) 

1661 
1661 
1661 
1661 
1664 
1664 

1665 
1665 
1665 
1665 

(above) 

(above) 
1666 
1665 
1667 
1664 
1665 

(above) 
1670 
1665 
1670 
1672 
1665 
1677 
1675 
1669 
1678 
1681 
1665 
1669 
1667 

(above) 
1689 
1685 
1690 
1677 
1690 
1692 
1683 

(above) 
1693 
1694 
1694 
1696 
1696 

Cabove) 
1694 

(above) 
1685 
1700 
1701 



1658 
1658 
1659 
1661 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1663 
1664 
1665 
1665 
1665 
1665 
1665 
1665 
1666 
1668 
1668 
1668 
1668 
1669 
1672 
1673 
1674 
1676 
1677 
1678 
1679 
1681 
1681 
1683 
1685 
1685 
1685 
1689 
1689 
1690 
1690 
1690 
1690 
1692 
1692 
1693 
1694 
1695 
1695 
1697 
1698 
1698 
1699 
1700 
1701 
1701 
1703 



1660 
1659 
1694 
1662 
1688 
1664 
1696 
1665 
1664 
1664 
1666 
1683 
1698 
1673 
1668 
1681 
1668 
1668 
1679 
1692 
1674 
1669 
1681 
1688 
1708, 
1685, 
1677 
1678 
1703 
1690 
1685 
1698 
1703 
1690 
1692 
1690 
1693 
1690 
1695 
1694 
1710 
1713 
1701 
1704, 
1707 
1730 
1701 
1723 
1723 
1722 
1699 
1700, 
1709 
1712 
1711 
1725 



died. ? 
(below.) 

resigned, 
died, 
(below.) 
(below.) 

(below.) 
died. ? 
died. ? 



died, 
died. 



died. ? 



died. 

(below.) 

died. ? 
died. ? 
died. ? 
(below.) 
(below.) 

died. 



died. ? 
died. 



died. ? 
died. 



(below.) 



32 



498 



APPENDIX. 



ASSISTANTS. 

Richard Christophers, New London, 

John Ailing, New Haven, 

GURDON SALTONSTALL, New London,. 

John Ilaynes, Hartford, 

Samuel Eells, Milford, 

Matthew Allen, Windsor, 

JOSEPH TALCOTT, Hartford, 

Abraham Fowler, Guilford, 

John Sherman, Woodbury, 

Roger Wolcott, Windsor, 

JONATHAN LAW, Milford, 

James Wadsworth, Durham, 

ROGER WOLCOTT, Windsor, 

John Hall, Wallingford, 

Christopher Christophers, New London, 

Hezekiah Brainard, Haddam, 

John Hooker, Farmington, 

John Wakeman, Fairfield, 

Nathaniel Stanly, Hartford, 

Joseph Whiting, New Haven, 

Ozias Pitkin, Hartford, 

Timothy Pierce, Plainfield, 

John Burr, Fairfield, 

Samuel Lynde, Saybrook, 

Edmund Lewis, Stratford, 

WILLIAM PITKIN, Hartford, 

Thomas Fitch, Norwalk, 

Roger Newton, Milford, 

Ebenezer Silliman, Fairfield, 

THOMAS FITCH, Norwalk, 

Jonathan Trumbull, Lebanon, 

Hezekiah Huntington, Norwich 

John Bulkley, Colchester, 

Andrew Burr, Fairfield, 

Roger Newton, Milford, 

John Chester, Wethersfield, 

Hezekiah Huntington, Norwich, 

Gurdon Saltonstall, New London, 

Thomas Welles, Glastenbury, 

Benjamin Hall, Wallingford, 

Phineas Lyman, Suffield, 

JONATHAN TRUMBULL, Lebanon, 

Roger Wolcott, Windsor, 

Jonathan Huntington, Windham, 

Daniel Edwards, Hartford 

Jabez Hamlin, Middletown, 

MATTHEW GRISWOLD, Lyme, 

Shubael Conant, Mansfield, 

Elisha Shelden, Litchfield, 

Eliphalet Dyer, Windham, 

Jabez Huntington, Windham, 

William Pitkin, East Hartford, 

Roger Sherman, New Haven, 

Robert Walker, Stratford, 

Abraham Davenport, Stamford, 

Wm. Sa muel Johnson, Stratfiird, 



(above) 

1703 

not nom, 

1696 
1683 
1706 
1709 
1705 
1711 
1712 
1710 
1716 

(above) 
1719 
1718 
1720 
1709 
1715 
1723 
1722 
1725 
1725 
1724 
1729 
1729 
1731 
1730 
1729 
1736 

(above) 
1739 
1739 
1735 
1734 

(above) 
1741 

(above) 
1746 
1749 
1749 
1751 

(above) 
1747 
1751 
1751 
1754 
1755 
1754 
1758 
1758 
1761 
1763 
1761 
1760 
1764 
1765 



Elec. 

703 

704 
707 
708 
709 
710 
711 
712 
713 
714 
717 
718 
720 
722 
723 
723 
723 
724 
725 
725 
727 
728 
729 
730 
730 
734 
734 
736 
739 
740 
740 
740 
743 
746 
742 
747 
748 
749 
751 
751 
752 
754 
754 
754 
755 
758 
759 
760 
702 
762 
764 
766 
766 
766 
766 
766 



723. 

717. 
724, 
714. 
740, 
734. 
741, 
720. 
723. 
718, 
750, 
752. 
754. 
730. 
729. 
728, 
734. 
727. 
749. 
746. 
747. 
748. 
740. 
754, 
739. 
769, 
736, 
740, 
766. 
766. 
751, 
743, 
753, 
764. 
762. 
766. 
773. 
754. 
761. 
766. 
759. 
784, 
760, 
758. 
765, 
766, 
786. 
775, 
779, 
784, 
781, 
785, 
785, 
772, 
784. 
776, 



died, 
died. ? 
died. 



(below.j 
died. 



died. ? 



died. 

died. 

(below.) 

(below.) 



(below.) 
(below.) 
died. 



declined, 
died. 

died, 
(below.) 

died. 

died. 

died. ? 

died. ? 

resigned. 

resigned. 

died. 

(below.) 



APPENDIX. 



499 



ASSISTANTS. 

Joseph Spencer, East Haddam, 

Zebulon West, Tolland, 

OLIVER WOLCOTT, Litchfield, 

Jabez Hamlin, Middletown, 

James A. Hillhouse, New Haven, 

SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, Norwich, 

Richard Law, New London, 

William Williams, Lebanon, 

Titus Hosmer, Middletown, 

Oliver Ellsworth, Windsor, (below,) 

Joseph Spencer, East Haddam, 

Adams, Andrew, Litchfield, 

Benjamin Huntington, Norwich, 

Joseph Piatt Cooke, Danbury, 

Stephen Mix Mitchell, Wethersfield, 

William Williams, Lebanon, 

William Hillhouse, New London, 

Erastus Wolcott, East Windsor, 

JOIIN' TREAD WELL, Farmington, 

Jonathan Sturges, Fairfield, 

James Wadsworth, Durham, 

Wm. Samuel Johnson, Stratford, 

John Chester, Wethersfield, 

James Hillhouse, New Haven, 

Jedediah Strong, Litchfield, 

Jesse Root, Coventry, 

James Davenport, Stamford, 

Roger Newberry, Windsor, 

Heman Swift, Cornwall, 

John Chandler, Newtown, 

Benjamin Huntington, Norwich, 

Amasa Learned, New London, 

Jonathan IngersoU, New Haven, 

Tapping Reeve, Litchfield, 

Asher Miller, Middletown, 

Thomas Grosvenor, Pomfret, 

Thomas Seymour, Hartford, 

Aaron Austin, New Hartford, 

Jeremiah Wadsworth, Hartford, 

JONATHAN TRUMBULL, Lebanon, 

David Daggett, New Haven, 

Jonathan Brace, Hartford, 

Zephaniah Swift, Windham, 

Nathaniel Smith, Woodbury, 

John Allen, Litchfield, 

Zephaniah Swift, Windham, 

Oliver Ellsworth, Windsor, 

Jonathan Brace, Hartford, 

Chauncey Goodrich, Hartford, 

John Chester, Wethersfield, 

William Edmund, Newtown, 

Ehzur Goodrich, New Haven, 

Matthew Griswold, Lyme, 

Stephen T. Hosmer, Middletown, 

Asher Miller, Middletown, 

Henry Champion, Colchester, 



1765 

1766 
1768 

(above) 
1771 
1773 
1774 
1774 
1775 
1778 

(above) 
1779 
1779 
1783 
1783 

(above) 
1783 
1772 
1783 
1784 
1776 

(above) 
1786 
1785 
1786 
1780 
1789 
1789 
1789 
1789 

(above) 
1790 
1790 
1789 
1791 
1789 
1791 
1792 
1787 
1788 
1794 
1797 
1791 
1798 
1794 

(above) 

(above) 

(above) 
1793 

(above) 
1793 
1801 
1802 
1798 

(above) 
1803 



766 
770 
771 
773 
773 
775 
776 
776 
778 
780 
779 
781 
781 
784 
784 
784 
785 
785 
785 
785 
785 
786 
788 
789 
789 
789 
790 
790 
790 
790 
791 
791 
792 
792 
793 
793 
793 
794 
795 
796 
797 
798 
799 
799 
800 
801 
802 
802 
902 
803 
803 
803 
805 
805 
806 
806 



Judge, 
(below.) 
died. 
Judge. 



(below.) 



778, (below.) 

771. 

798, 

785, 

775 

796 

784 

780 

780, 

785 

789, 

790 

790 

803, 

793 

803 

809, 

790, 

811 

789, 

788 

789 

792 

791 

791 

789, 

797, 

809 

802 

795 

793 

792 

798, 

793 

793 

802, 

803 

818 

801 

809, 

814 

799 

800 

805 

806, 

801 

808. 

819 

808 

809 

806 

818 

818 

815 

817 

818 



(below.) 



Judge, 
died. 



died. 
Judge. 

(below.) 

Judge. 



died. 
Sen. C. 
(below,) 
(below.) 
Judge. 

Judge. 



(below.) 
Judge. 

Judge. 



500 



APPENDIX. 



ASSISTANTS. 

Calvin Goddard, Norwich, 

Isaac Beers, New Haven, 

John Cotton Smith, Sharon, 

[Judson Canfield, Sharon, 

Theodore Dwight, Hartford, 

ROGER GRISWOLD, Lyme, 

Frederick Wolcott, Litchfield, 

JOHN COTTON SxMITH, Sharon,. 

Chauncey Goodkich, liartford, 

Roger M. Sherman, Fairfield, 

Samuel \V. Johnson, Stratford, 

Noah B. Benedict, Woodbury, 

William Perkins, Ashford, 

Samuel B. Sherwood, Fairfield, 

Jonathan Ingersoll, New Haven,. . 

Asa Chapman, Newtown, 

Elias Perkins, New London, 

OLIVER WOLCOTT, Litchfield, . . . . 

William Bristol, New Haven, 

Elijah Boardman, New Milford,. . . .'. 

David Tomlinson, Oxford, 

Sylvester Wells, Hartford, 

JOHN S. PETERS, Hebron, 

James Lanman, Norwich, 

Enoch Burrows, Stonington, 

Peter Webb, Guilford, ? 



Norn. 


Elec. 
1808 


1806 


1804 


1808 


1807 


1809 


1804 


1809 


1808 


1809 


1793 


1809 


1808 


1810 


(above) 


1811 


(above) 


1813 


1808 


1814 


1810 


1815 


1810 


1816 


1810 


1816 


1815 


1816 


(above) 


1816 


1809 


1817 


1813 


1817 




1817 


1817 


1818 


1817 


1818 


1817 


1818 


1817 


1818 


1817 


1818 


1817 


1818 


1817 


1818 


1817 


1818 



1815, Judge. 

1809. 

1810, Judge. 

1815. 

1816. 

1812, died. 

1819. 

1817. 

1815, died. 

1818. 

1818. 

1818. 

1818. 

1817. 

1819. 

1819. 

1819. 

1819. 

1819. 

1819. 

1819. 

1819. 

1819. 

1819. 

1819. 

1819. 



ROLL OF DEPUTIES 



TO THE GENERAL COURT OF CONNECTICUT 

FROM APRIL 1640, TO THE UNION WITH NEW HAVEN COLONY, APRIL 1665. 



NAMES OF DEPUTIES. 



Mr. Allyn, 

Lieut. John Allyn, . . . 

Thomas Allyn, 

Ensign James Avery, 

Andrew Bacon, 

Mr. John Banks,. . . . 

Joshua Barnes, 

William Beardsley, . . 
Mr. James Bishop,. . . 
Thomas Birchard, . . . 
Samuel Boardman, . . , 

Mr. John Bissell, 

Lieut. James Boozey, , 
John Bronson, 



First 


No. 


elected. 


"»• 


1648 


14 


1661 


1 


1656 


1 


1659 


6 


1642 


25 


1651 


6 


1663 


1 


1645 


7 


1665 


1 


1650 


2 


1657 


17 


1648 


16 


1640 


14 


1651 


4 



NAMES OF DEPUTIES. 



Mr. Jonathan Brewster,... 

John Burr, 

Mr. Jehu Burr, 

Lieut. John Budd, 

Richard Butler, 

Mr. Matthew Canfield, 

Nath. Canfield, 

Hugh Caulkins, 

Mr. Robert Chapman, . . . . 

Thomas Chapman, 

Mr. Chaplin, 

Mr. William Chesebrough, 

William Cheeney, 

Mr. George Clark, 



First 


No 


elected. 


«eB. 


1650 


7 


1641 


1 


1645 


7 


1664 


1 


1656 


8 


1654 


12 


1655 


1 


1652 


11 


1652 


17 


1652 


2 


1642 


2 


1653 


5 


1660 


5 


1665 


1 



I 



APPENDIX. 



>01 



NAMES OF DEPUTIES. 

Mr. Daniel Clark, 

Henry Clark, 

Mr. John Clark, 

Mr. Clarke, 

John Cooper, 

Thomas Coleman, 

Sergt. William Corn well, 

Thomas Cook, 

Richard Crabb, 

Mr. Cullick, 

John Cowles, 

Mr. John Deming, 

Capt. Denison, 

Nathaniel Dickerson,. . . 

Samuel Drake, 

John Edwards, 

Nath.Ely, 

Mr. Thomas Fairchild,.. 

Mr. Joseph Fitch, 

Nathaniel Foot, 

Thomas Ford, 

John Fowler, 

Lieut. Walter Fyler, 

Mr. William Gaylord, . . . 

George Graves, 

William Goodrich, 

John Gregory, 

Francis Griswold, 

Edward Griswold, 

Matthew Griswold, 

Nath. Griswold, 

Philip Graves, 

Henry Gray, 

Samuel Hale, 

John Hall, Jr., 

Samuel Hall, 

Mr. Hall 

Thomas Halsey, Jr., 

Joseph Hawley, 

John Hart, 

Stephen Hart, 

Ed. Harvey, 

Mr. Hill, 

William Hill, 

Mr. John Hollister, 

Mr. Hosford, 

Mr. Anthony Hawkins,. . 

Mr. John Howell, 

Walter Hoyt, 

George Hubbard, 

Mr. Cornelius Hull, 

Mr. George Hull, 



First 


No. 


elected. 


ses. 


1653 


5 


1642 


2 


1649 


21 


1641 


9 


1665 


1 


1651 


9 


1654 


3 


1665 


1 


1640 


2 


1644 


3 


1653 


2 


1646 


19 


1653 


3 


1646 


19 


1662 


1 


1643 


2 


1656 


1 


1646 


11 


1654 


10 


1641 


2 


1640 


4 


1665 


1 


1661 


3 


1640 


36 


1656 


4 


1660 


3 


1659 


3 


1664 


1 


1656 


9 


1649 


3 


1650 


1 


1642 


14 


1642 


2 


1656 


3 


1653 


1 


1660 


1 


1661 


1 


1664 


1 


1658 


1 


16.59 


2 


1646 


13 


1646 


1 


1641 


10 


1651 


3 


1644 


14 


1652 


1 


1657 


13 


1662 


2 


16.58 


3 


1640 


3 


1656 


9 


1649 


1 



NAMES OF DEPUTIES. 

Josias Hull, 

Mr. Hull 

Thomas Hunt, 

John Hurd, 

John Jessop, 

Thomas Judd, 

Ensign Joseph Judson, . . 

William Kenney, 

John Ketchum, 

Sergt. John Kilbourn,. . . 

John Lattimer, 

Cary Latham, 

Thomas Leffingwell, 

Mr. Lord, 

Matthew Marvin, 

Captain Mason, 

Good. Meads, 

Mr. Thomas Minor, 

Thomas Morehouse, 

Isaac Moore, 

Mr. John Moore, 

James Morgan, 

Joseph Mygatt, 

Capt. Benjamin Newbery, 

Thf)mas Newton, 

Mr. Isaac Nichols, 

Sergt. John Nott, 

Lieut. Richard Olmsted,.. 

William Parker, 

Mr. Parks 

Mr. Phelps, 

Mr. Plumb, 

John Pratt, 

Mr. Porter, , 

Mr, Thomas Pell, 

Tliomas Rayner, 

Nath. Richards, , 

John Robbing, , 

Mr. Robbins, 

Mr. James Rogers, , 

Robert Rose, 

Mr. Rossiter, , 

Robert Royce 

Captain Seely, 

Samuel Sherman, 

Thomas Sherrat, 

Thomas Sherwood, 



First 
elected, 

1659 
1640 
1664 
1649 

1664 
1646 
1658 

1662 
1664 
1660 

1654 
1664 
1662 
1656 

1654 
1641 
1653 
1650 
16.53 
1657 
16.53 
1657 
1656 

1656 
1645 
1662 
1662 

1653 

1652 
1642 
1645 
1642 
1641 
1646 
1664 

1640 
1658 
1643 
] 656 
1661 
1641 
1643 
1661 
1664 
1660 
1649 
1645 



502 



APPENDIX. 



NAMES OF DEPUTIES. 



William Smith, 

Samnel Smith, 

Mr. Spencer, 

Sergt. John Stanley, . . . 

Ed. Stebbing, 

Thomas Staunton, 

Thomas Staples, 

John Sticklin, 

Mr. Steele, 

Samuel Stocking, 

Mr. Stoughton, 

Mr. Swayne, 

Lieut. Samuel Swayne, 

Mr. Taintor, 

Mr. Talcott, 

John Tinker, 

Daniel Titterton, 

Thomas Thomson,. . . . 

Thomas Thornton, 

Thomas Tracv, 

Mr. Treat,...' 

Michael Try, 



First 


No. 


elected. 


ses. 


1652 


4 


1641 


21 


1640 


1 


1659 


4 


1640 


16 


1651 


1 


1649 


3 


1641 


1 


1640 


34 


1658 


3 


1640 


8 


1641 


3 


1665 


1 


1646 


2 


1640 


30 


1660 


2 


1646 


4 


1650 


1 


1651 


1 


1662 


23 


1644 


5 


1657 


1 



NAMES OF DEPUTIES. 

Mr. William Wadsworth,. .. 

Ens. William Waller, 

Mr. Andrew Ward, 

Nath. Ward, 

Robert Warner, 

Robert Webster, 

Richard Webb, 

John Welles, 

Mr. Samuel Wells, 

Mr. Thomas Wells, 

John Wheeler, 

Mr. Westwood, 

Nathaniel White, 

Thomas Whitmore, 

William Wilcoxson, 

Anthony Wilson, 

David Wilton, 

Andrew Winard, , 

Barnabas Wines, 

Mr. Henry Wolcott, 

John Wilford,* 

Mr. Richard WoodhuU, 



First 


Nn 


elected. 


sea. 


1652 


17 


1663 


2 


1648 


13 


1656 


1 


1660 


7 


1653 


9 


1655 


1 


1656 


4 


1657 


8 


1662 


1 


1657 


4 


1642 


21 


1659 


8 


1654 


1 


1646 


1 


1646 


1 


1646 


11 


1653 


1 


1664 


1 


1655 


3 


1664 


1 


1664 


1 



CATALOGUE 

OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CLERGYMEN IN CONNECTICUT 
AND NEW HAVEN COLONIES, 

DOWN TO 1665, VIZ. 



Thomas Hooker, Hartford, 
Samuel Stone, Hartford,. .. 
Ephraim Hewett, Wind.sor, 
Sam'l Hooker, Farmington, 
John Davenport, N. Haven, 
Wni. Hook, New Haven,. 
Nicholas Street, N. Haven, 
Peter Prudden, Milford,. 
Roger Newton, Milford, 
Henry Whitfield, Guilford, 



From* 


To. 


1633 


1647 


1633 


1663 


1639 


1644 


1661 


1697 


1639 


1668 


1644 


1656 


1659 


1674 


1640 


1656 


1660 


1683 


1639 


1650 



John Higginson, Guilford,. 
Joseph Elliott, Guilford, . . 
Samuel Russell, Branford,. 
Rd. Blynman, N. London, . 
N. Russell, Middletovvn. 
Henry Smith, Wethersfield 
Jon a. Russell, " 
Joseph Haynes, Hartford. 

Samuel Whiting, 

Thos. Buckingham, Sayb'k 



1650 
1660 
1644 
1650 
1658 
1641 
1648 



1660 



1659 

1665 
1658 
1713 
1648 

1679 



* From May, 1637, to April, 1640, the popular branch of the General Court or General 
Assembly, as it was afterwards called, was composed of " Committees." The following gentle- 
men served in that capacity between these dates, viz. :— Mr. Whiting, Mr. Webster, Mr. Williams, 
Mr. Hull, Mr. Chaplin, Mr. Talcott, Mr. Hosford, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Sherman, Capt. Mason, Mr. 
Hopkins, Mr. Steel, Mr. Ford, Thomas Marshall, Mr. Andrew Ward, George Hubbard, John Gibbs, 
Thurston Rayuer, Mr. Moxam, .Mr. Burr, Mr. Spencer, John Pratt, Edward Stebbing, Mr. Gaylord, 
Mr. Henry Wolcott, Mr. Stoughton, James Boosey, Richard Crabb, Mr. Porter, Mr. Tappan, and 
Mi. Hill. Many of the deputies above named, were frequently elected after the union. 



APPENDIX 



503 



NAMES. 


From. 

lf.61 


To. 

1666 


NAMES. 


From. 

1641 


To. 

1644 


Gershom Bulkley, " 


Richard Denton, Stamfords 


James Fitch, Norwich,. . . 


1660 


1694 


John Bishop, Stamford,. .. 


1644 


1694 


Mr. Jones, Fairfield, 






Adam Blaekman, Stratford, 


1640 


1665 


Samuel Wakeman, do 


1665 


1692 


Israel Chaunccy, Stratford, 


166.5 


1722 


ZechariahWalker,Stratford 




1670 


Thomas Hanford, Norwalk, 


1654 





MASTERS. 



List of gentlemen who are designated upon the Colonial Records of Connecticut, 
with the prefix of Master (or " Mr.") previous to the union of that colony with 
New Haven, 1665 — including those who bore military titles of a nearly equal 
rank, viz : 



Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 



Ludlow, 

John Steele, 

Wm. Swayne, . . . . 
Wm. Westwood, . . 
Andrew Ward, . . . 
Wm. Phelps,. . . . 
W^m. Pyneheon, . . 
Thomas Allen, . . . 
John Oldham, . . . . 

John Plumb, 

Francis Stiles, . . -. . 

Seely, 

Strickland, 

Mitchell, , 

Clement Chaplin,. 
Thomas Welles, . . 
William Whiting,. 
John Webster, . . . 

Williams, 

Hull, 

Talcott, 

John Sherman, . . . 

Hosford, 

John Mason, 

John Ilaynes, . . . . 

Smith, '. 

Edward Hopkins,. 
Thomas Ford, . . . . 



1636 
1636 
16.36 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1636 
1536 
1637 
1637 
1637 
16.37 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1637 
1638 
1638 
1638 



Mr. 
i Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mv. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 



Holmes, 

Mo.xam, 

Burr, 

Stephen Terry, . . . 
Samuel Stone,. . . . 
William Goodwin, 
George Wyllys, . . 
William Gaylord, . 

Spencer, 

Stoughton 

Henry Wolcott, . . 

Moore, 

Weed, 

Skinner, 

Porter, 

Tappan, 

Hill, 

Fenwick, 

Hooker, 

John Woodcock, . , 

Prudden, 

Matthew Allen, . . , 
Ephraim Hewett, . , 
Arthur Williams,. 

Parks, , 

Moody, 

Edward Hopkins,. 
Rossiter 



1638 
1638 
1638 
1638 
1638 
16.38 
1639 
1639 
16.39 
1639 
1639 
16.39 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1639 
1640 
1640 
1640 
1640 
1640 
1640 



* These names are gathered mainly from J. Hammond Trumbull's " Colonial Records." It will be 
observed that many eminent names in our Colonial history, are not found in the roll here given. 
The reasons are obvious. The period covers only the first thirty years of our existence as a colony. 
Many gentlemen who were in Connecticut during that time, afterwards became prominent ; others 
did not arrive from England until a later date. I have not been able to obtain anything like a com- 
plete list of those who bore this title in New Haven Colony. A very few only of the names here 
given, belonged to other jurisdictions. 



504 



APPENDIX. 



NAMES. 

Mr. Robert Saltonstall, . 

Mr. Deynton, 

Mr. Clark, 

Mr. Coggen, 

Mr. Fowler, 

Mr. Astwood, 

Mr. Tapp, 

Mr. Phoenix, 

Mr. Cullick, 

Mr. Tyler 

Mr. Eldridge, 

Mr. Cliester, 

Mr. Treat, 

Mr. Robbins, 

Mr. Branker, 

Mr. John Hollister, 

Mr. Andrews, 

Mr. Gilbert, 

Mr. Graves, 

Mr. Cosmore, 

Mr. Taintor, 

Mr. Boozey, , 

Mr. Howell, , 

Mr. Pinney, , 

Mr. Olcott, - 

Mr. Blackleach, 

Mr. Blackman, - 

Mr. Jonathan Brewster,. 

Mr. Bhnman, 

Mr. Augustine, 

Mr. Wm. Lewis, 

Mr. Wlieeler, 

Mr. John Steele, Jr.,. . . 
Mr. Thomas Barnes, . . . , 
Mr. Richard Olmsted, . . . 

Mr. Daniel Clark, 

Mr. Denison, 

Mr. Cook, 

Mr. Samuel Wyllys, 

Mr. Samuel Mayo, . . 

Mr. Bryant, 

Mr. Fitch, 

Mr. John Whiting, 

Mr. Wm. Whiting, Jr.,. 

Mr. Baxter, 

Mr. John Russell, 

Mr. Ogden, 

Mr. Benjamin Newbury, 

Mr. Nathan Gold, 

Mr. Wareham, 

Mr. Thomas Pell, 

Mr. Lord, 

Mr. Ealbourn, 

Mr. John Betts, 

Mr. Dickerson, 

Mr. Nott 



Year. 



1641 

1641 
1641 
1641 
1641 
1641 
1641 
1642 
1642 
1642 
1642 
1642 
1642 
1643 
1643 
1643 
1644 
1646 
1646 
1647 
1647 
1647 
1647 
1648 
1648 
1649 
1649 
1650 
1651 
1651 
1651 
1651 
1651 
1651 
1651 
1653 
1653 
1653 
1654 
1654 
1654 
1654 
1654 
1654 
1654 
1654 
1656 
1656 
1656 
1656 
1656 
1656 
1657 
1657 
1657 
1657 



Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 
Mr. 



NAMES. 

John Wells, 

Alexander Knowles, 

Baker, 

Mulford,'. 

Cobbett, 

Danforth, 

Brown, 

Norton, 

Matthew Canfield,. . 

Walter Hoy t, 

Samuel Wells, 

Thomas Fairchild,.. 

Wilton, 

Barrett 

.Tosiah Stanborough, 

Bruen, 

John Cotton, 

Varlet, 

Stow, 

Rayner, 

Bond, 

Baker, 

Hall, 

Richard Woodhull,. 
Thomas Pierce, .... 

Halsey, 

Palms, 

Thomas Bull, 

Joseph Willard, . 

Wm. Pratt, 

Wm. Waller, 

Wm. Bushnell, 

Reynold Marvin, 

Jonas Wood 

Wadsworth, 

Thomson, 

Joseph Haynes, .... 

James Rogers, 

Samuel Smith, 

James Avery, 

John Young, 

Glover, 

Elton, 

Tucker, 

William Pitkin, 

Samuel Talcott, 

Rickball, 

Sylvester, 

Gardiner, 

Tyler, 

Anthony Howkins, . . 
Robert Chapman, . . . 

Burr, 

Thomas Minor, 

Jones, 

Samuel Sherman, . . . 



1658 
1658 
1658 
1658 
1658 
1658 
1658 
1658 
1659 
1659 
1659 
1659 
1659 
1659 
1659 
1660 
1660 
1660 
1660 
1660 
1661 
1661 
1661 
1661 
1661 
1661 
1661 
1661 
1661 
1661 
1661 
1661 
1661 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1662 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 



APPENDIX.. 



505 



NAMES. 


Year. 

1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1663 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 


NAMES. 


Year. 

1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 
1664 


Mr. Hanford, 


Mr. Wood, 


Mr TVakeman, 


Mr. Barton, 

Mr. Thomas Benedict, 


Mr. Richard Mills, 


Mr. John Budd, 


Mr. Richard Betts, 


Mr. Richard Smith, Sr 


Mr. William Noble, 

Mr. William Hallett, 


Mr. Joseph Hews, 


Mr. Edw. Hutchinson, 


Mr. James Hubbard, 


Mr. Richard Smith, Jr 

Mr. Bourne, 


Mr. William Wilkins, 

Mr. James Richards, 


Mr. Dallye, 


Mr. Fordham, 

Mr. Walker, 


Mr. Tracy, 


Mr. John Scott, 


Mr. Loveridge, 

Mr. Hagborn, 

Mr. Douglass 


Mr. Bissell, 


Mr. Hamlin, 


Mr. John Hicks, 


Mr. John Moore, 

Mr. John Stanley, 

Mr. Cornelius Hull, 

Mr. John Banks, 


Mr. Robert Coe, 


Mr. John Coe, 


Mr. William Clark, 


Mr. Jessup, 


Mr. Robert Treat, 







FAMILY NAMES 

OF SOKE OF THE PLMTERS OF THE COLONIES OF CONNECTICUT 
AND NEW HAYEN, 

PREVIOUS TO THEIR UNION IN 1665. 



Abbe, 


Atkinson, 


Abbott, 


Atwater, 


Abel, 


Atwood, 


Abernethy, 


Austin, 


Ackley, 


Avery, 


Adams, 


Axtell, 


Addis, 


Ayres, 


Adgate, 




Adkins, 


Backus, 


Aiken, 


Bacon, 


Alcock, 


Bailey, 


Alexander, 


Baker, 


Allen, 


Baldwin, 


Alsop, 


Bamster, 


Alvord, 


Bancroft, 


Andrews, 


Banks, 


Andrus, 


Barber, 


Armstrong, 


Barden, 


Arnold, 


Barker, 


Ashley, 


Bailey, 


Astwood, 


Barlow, 


Atkins, 


Barnard, 



Barnes, 

Barnum, 

Barrett, 

Barrows, 

Bartlett, 

Bateman, 

Bates, 

Bascomb, 

Bassett, 

Baxter, 

Beach, 

Beacham, 

Beale, 

Beard, 

Beardsley, 

Beaucamp, 

Beebe, 

Beecher, 

Beers, 

Beckley, 

Beckwith, 

Belcher, 



Belden, 

Bell, 

Bellingham, 

Beaumont, 

Bement, 

Benedict, 

Benham, 

Benjamin, 

Bennett, 

Benton, 

Benson, 

Betts, 

Bidwell, 

Bigelow, 

Birchard, 

Biggs, 

Billings, 

Bingham, 

Bird, 

Birdseye, 

Birge, 

Bishop, 



506 



APPEIODIX. 



Bissell, 


Buckingham, 


Clough, 


Dummer, 


Buckland, 


Buel, 


Carbitt, 




Blaehford, 


Bulkley, 


Cadman, 


East, 


Blackleach, 


Bull, 


Cadner, 


Eaton, 


Blackman, 


Bunce, 


Coe, 


Edwards, 


Blakeslej', 


Bunnell, 


Cogswell, 


Edmunds, 


Blinman, 


Burden, 


Coit, 


Eggleston, 


Bliss, 


Burgess, 


Cole, 


Elderkin, i 


Bloomer, 


Burnham, 


Cone, 


Eldred, 


Blomfield, 


Burroughs, 


Constable, 


Eldridge, 


Boardman, 


Burr, 


Cowles, 


Ellis, 


Bolles, 


Burrett, 


Colfaxe, 


Ellison, 


Boltwood, 


Burwell, 


Coleman, 


Elliott, 


Bolt, 


,Bush, 


Collier, 


Elmore, 


Bond, 


Bushnell, 


Collins, 


Elsing, 


Boosy, 


Butler, -=-- 


Coltman, 


Ellsworth, 


Bordain, 


Butterfield, 


Colt, 


Elton, 


Booth, 




Colton, 


Ely, 


Bostwick, 


Cabell, 


Comstock, 


Everts, 


Boswell, 


Cadwell, 


Conklin, 


Evans, 


Botsford, 


Calder, 


Coker, 




Bowe, 


Camp, 


Cooke, 


Fairchild, 


Bowers, 


Canfield, 


Cooley, 


Farrand, 


Boughton, 


Carr, 


Cooper, 


Fellowes, 


Boyd, 


Carrington, 


Cornelius, 


Fenn, 


Boyes, 


Carrier, 


Corn well. 


Fenner, 


Boykin, 


Carter, 


Cary, 


Fenwick, 


Braekett, 


Case, 


Cosmore, 


Fernian, 


Bratfield, 


"'Castle, 


Colton, 


Ferris, 


Brace, 


Catlin, 


Crane, 


Filley, 


Brawley, 


CattelJ, 


Craddock, 


Finch, 


Bradley, 


Caulkins, 


Cross, 


Fish, 


Bradstreet, 


Chalker, 


Crowell, 


Fisher, 


Braiiierd, 


Chalkwell, 


Crumb, 


Fitch, 


Bramfield, 


Champion, 


Cullick, 


Fletcher, 


Branker, 


Chauncey, 


Curtis, 


Foote, 


Brattle, 


Chappell, 


Curwin 


Ford, 


Breed, 


Chapin, 




Foster, 


Brewster, 


Chaplin, 


Daniels, 


Fowler, 


Bruen, 


Chapman, 


Davenport, 


Franklin, 


BridgeinaTi, 


Charles, 


Davis, 


Frost, 


Brigden, 


Charwell, 


Davies, 


Fugill, 


Briggs, 


Chalfield, 


Dawes, 


Freeman, 


Brinsmade, 


Chatter ton. 


Day, 


Fuller, 


Bristol, 


Chidsey, 


Deniing, 


Fyler, 


Brockett, 


Cheeney, 


Denison, 




Brodwell, 


Chapperfield, 


Denslow 


Gager, 


Brockway, 


Cherry, 


Desborough, 


Gaines, 


Bronson, 


Cheener, 


Dewey, 


Gaylord, ■ 


Brooke, 


Chester, 


Dibble, 


Gal pin. 


Brooks, 


Cheseborough, 


Dickinson, 


Gardner, 


Brown, 


Chichester, 


Douglass 


Garrett, 


Browning, 


Chittenden, 


Dowd, 


Gibbons, 


Brundish, 


Christophers, 


Drake, 


Gibbs, 


Brush, 


Church, 


Dyer, 


Gibbud, 


Bryan, 


Churchill, 


Dixon, 


Gilbert, 


Budd, 


Clark, 


Dix, 


Gildersleeve, 


Buck, 


Clemons, 


Dudley, 


Gillett, 



/ 



APPENDIX. 



507 



Glover, 


Horton, 


Lines, 


Odell, 


Gold, 


Hosmer, 


Livermore, 


Ogden, 


Goodman, 


Hoyt, 


Lobdell, 


Olcott, 


Goodrich, 


Howard, 


Lockwood, , 


, Oldham, 


Goodwin, 


Hubbard, 


Loomis, 


Oldridge, 


Goodyear, 


Hubbell, 


Lowe, 


Olmsted, 


Grannis, 


Hudson, 


Lord, 


Orton, 


Grant, 


Husted, 


Lucas, 


Orvis, 


Graves, 


Humphrey, 


Ludlow 


Osborne. 


Gray, 


Hull, 


Lupton, 




Green, 


Hungerford, 


Lyman, 


Packer, 


Gregson, 


Hurd, 


Lyon. 


Paine, 


Gridley, 


Hutchinson 




Palmer 


Griffin, 




Mygatt, 


Palmes, 


Grisvvold. 


Ireland, 


Mapes, 


Pantry, 


Gunn. 


Ives. 


Marsh, 


Parker, 






Marshall, 


Parks, 


Hale, 


Jackson, 


Marshfield, 


Parkman, 


Hall, 


Jacox, 


Martin, 


Parsons, 


Hallett, 


James, 


Marvin, 


Partridge, 


Halsey, 


Jenner, 


iVTason, 


Patterson, 


Hamlin, 


Jennings, 


Maynard, 


Patton, 


Hanford, 


Jessup, 


May, 


Peck, 


Hardy, 


Johnson, 


Mayo, 


Peacock, 


Harrison, 


Jones, 


Mead, 


Pell, 


Harris, 


Jordan, 


J Meigs, 


Perkins, 


Hart, 


Judd, 


Mercer, 


Perry, 


Hartley, 


Judson. 


Merrick, 


Pettibone, 


Harvey, 




Merwin, 


Phelps, 


Hazard, 


Keeler, 


Merrill, 


Phillips, 


Hawkins, 


Kellogg, 


Miles, 


Pierce, 


Hawkes, 


Kelsey, 


Mills, 


Pinney, 


Haynes, 


Kenney, 


Minor, 


Pinckuey, 


Hayward, 


Kirby, 


Mitchell, 


Pitkin, 


Hayes, 


Kitchell, 


Moody, 


Pincheon, 


Heaton, 


Ketehum, 


Moore, 


. Piatt, 


Hewett, 


Kilbourn, 


— Morehouse, 


Plumb, 


Hicks, 


Kimberly 


Morgan, 


Pomeroy 


Higginson, 


King, 


Morton, 


Pond, 


Higley, 


Kirkham, 


Moses, 


Potter, 


Hill, 


Knowles. 


Moulthrop, 


Porter, 


Hills, 




Mudge, 


Post, 


Hillyar, 


Langdon, 


Mulford, 


Powell, 


Hine, 


Larribee, 


Munson. 


Pratt, 


Hitchcock, ■*— » 


Lamberton, 




Prentice, 


Hiekok, 


Lathrop, 


Nash, 


Pritchard, 


Hoadley, 


Latham, 


Newbury, 


Preston, 


Houghton, 


Latimer, 


Nettleton, 


Prindle, 


Holbrook, 


Lane, 


Newman, 


Prime, 


Holbridge, 


Jt-ay, 


Newton, 


Provost, 


Holcomb, 


Law, 


Nichols, 


Pnidden, 


Hollister, 


Lawrence, 


Noble, 


Pierson, 


Holt, 


Lee, 


North, 


Pine, 


Hopkins, 


Leete, 


Nortliam, 


Putnam, 


Hook, 


Leffingwell, 


Northrop, 


Purdy, 


Hooker, 


Leonard, 


Norton, 


Punderson, 


Hoskins,- — • 


Leverett, 


Nott. 




Hosford, 


Lewis, 




Quicke, 



508 



APPETTOIX. 



Quinly. 


Skidmore, 


Tong, 


Westcott, 




Skinner, 


Tracy, 


Wesley, 


Randall, 


Smith, 


Treat, 


Weston, 


Rayner, 


Southmayd, 


Trowbridge, 


Westwood, 


Read, 


Spencer, 


Trumbull, 


Wetmore, 


Reeder, 


Stillson, 


Try, 


Wheeler, 


Reeves, 


Stoddard, 


Tucker, 


White, 


Reynolds, 


Stanton, 


Tudor, 


Whitehead, 


Riggs, 


Staples, 


Turner, 


Whitfield, 


Rice, 


Starks, 


Turney, 


Whiting, - 


Richards, 


Stebbing, 


Turrell. 


Whitman, 


Riley, 


Stedman, 




Whitmore, 


Risley, 


Steele, 


Uflbot, 


Wyatt, 


Robbins, 


Stephens, 


Underhill, 


Wicks, 


Roberts, 


Stephenson, 


Upson, 


Wickham, 


Robinson, 


Stillwell, 


Usher. 


Wilcox, 


Rogers, 


Strickland, 




Wilcoxson, 


Rossiter, 


Stocking, 


Vaill, 


Wilkinson, 


Rowland, 


Stone, 


Vincent, 


Wilkins, 


Royce, 


Stoughton, 


Veare. 


Willard, 


Rudd, 


Stowe, 




Willis, 


Russell. 


Strong 


Wade, 


Williams, 




Stiles, 


Wad hams. 


Willett, 


Sadler, 


Sultan. 


Wadsworth, 


Willey, 


Salter, 




Wakely, 


Wilson, 


Sal ton stall. 


Tallcott, 


Wakeman, 


Wilton, 


Sanfordj 


Tallman, 


Waller, 


Winchell, 


Sawyer, 


Tallmadge, 


Waples, 


Wines, 


Savage, 


Tapp, 


Ward, 


Winthrop, 


Scott, 


Tapping, 


Wareham, 


Wolcott, 


Scran ton, 


Taylor, 


Warner, 


Wood, 


Scudder, 


Tench, 


Warren, 


Woodruff, 


Seager, 


Terry, 


Waterhouse, 


Woodford, 


Seldon, 


Thorp, 


Waters, 


Wooster, 


Selleck, 


Thompson 


Watson, 


Woodcock, 


Sension, 


Thornton, 


Watts, 


Works, 


Seymour, 


Thrall, 


Wainwright, 


Wright, .y 


Shepard, 


Tibballs, 


Webb, 


Sherman, 


Tillton, 


Webster, 


Yale, 


Sedgwick, 


Tinker, 


Weed, 


Yates, 


Seeley, 


Titterton, 


Welch, 


Young, 


Shute, 


Titus, 


Wellman, 


Youngs. 


Sherwood, 


Tomlinson, 


Welles, 




Sill, 


Tompkins, 


West, 




Simpson, 


Torrey, 


Westall, 





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